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OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
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I  1    1 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


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A   PART   OF   THE   lOUAZU    FALl.S 


ARGENTINA  AND 
URUGUAY 


BY 

GORDON   ROSS 

FORMERLY    FINANCIAL    EDITOR    OF    "THE    STANDARD,"    BLTENOS    AIRES 

AND    OFFICIAL   TRANSLATOR    TO    THE    CONGRESS    OF    AJIERICAN 

REPUBLICS,    BUENOS    AIRES,    1910 


WITH    TWELVE     ILLUSTRATIONS,    FOUR    DIAGIIAMS 
AND    A    MAI' 


NEW  YORK 

THE  MAGMILLAN  COMPANY 

1916 


TO 

Sir  ROBERT  JOHN  KENNEDY,  k.c.m.g. 

THIS    BOOK 

IS    DEDICATED    IN    GRATEFUL    REMEMBRANCE 

OF   THE   MANY   KINDNESSES    SHOWN 

AND    VALUABLE    AID    GIVEN 

BY    HIM 

TO    THE    AUTHOR 

IN    HIS 

LITERARY    WORK    AT    MONTEVIDEO 

IN    191  I 


12640-16 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTORY 

An  allegory  of  the  Pampa — Patriarchs  and  Oligarchies — National 
and  local  politics  and  administration — Patrician  government — The 
landed  aristocracy — Patriotism  and  foreign  railways — The  problem 
of  agricultural  labour — Propaganda,  in  theory  and  in  practice — 
Needed  and  unneeded  immigration — The  peon  of  to-day  and  the 
gaucho — Urgent  need  of  rural  population — Industries  in  waiting — 
The  INCALCULABLE  future  of  the  River  Plate  countries — Lack  of 
Uruguayan  statistics    ....... 

CHAPTER   II 

THE   VfAK 

The  shock  falls  on  existing  local  depression — Vigorous  and  prompt 
action  of  the  River  Plate  governments  and  banks — No  "  Mariana  " — 
Mr.  C.  A.  Tornquist's  views — Again  the  need  of  rural  population — 
Socialism  from  above  and  below — Buoyancy  of  national  securities    . 

CHAPTER   III 

HISTORY    AND    POLITICS 

The  Declaration  of  Independence — Subsequent  chaos — Rozas  and 
Artfgas — Sarmicnto — Mitre — Juarez  Celman — The  Argentine  finan- 
cial crash  of  i8gi — Uruguay;  "  Whites  "  and  "  Reds  " — Uruguayan 
patriotism  and  honesty — "  State  socialism  gone  mad  " — The  com- 
mencements of  modern  River  Plate  history — Dr.  Saenz  Pcfia — 
Sound  financial  policy — Future  peace  and  prosperity — The  ballot  in 
Argentina  and  former  electoral  corruption — The  people  a  new  factor 
in  Argentine  politics     ....... 

CHAPTER    IV 

RACIAL    ELEMENTS    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

The  Argentine  of  the  future  (?)  and  of  the  past — Spanish  and 
Italian   immigration — Young   patriots — Argentine   and    Uruguayan 


viii  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

PAGE 

sources  of  immigration — River  Plate  Spanish  and  philology — Argen- 
tines and  Uruguayans  contrasted — Manners  and  characteristics — The 
true  signification  of  "  Mafiana  " — Some  advice  to  immigrants — 
Land  and  the  foreigner — Much  learning  and  little  application — -Lower- 
class  illiteracy — Argentine  women,  households,  and  children — 
Jeitnesse  doree — Further  contrast  of  Argentines  and  Uruguaj'ans     .       40 


CHAPTER   V 

NATIONAL,    PROVINCIAL,    AND    MUNICIPAL    GOVERNMENT 

The  constitutions  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay,  advantages  and 
defects  of  each — Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta — "  Revolucion  de  arriba  " — 
A  "  Coup  d'Etat  " — Former  Argentine  electoral  practices — Doctrin- 
aire government  in  Uruguay — An  autocratic  democrat — General 
strike  and  general  festivities — Certified  milk-cans — Provincial  authori- 
ties— Freedom  from  corruption  of  National  governments — The 
"  making  "  of  internal  politics — Finance — "  A  fat  thief  better  than 
a  lean  one  " — Childish  things,  soon  to  be  put  away  .  .  .62 

CHAPTER   VI 

MONTEVIDEO    AND    BUENOS    AIRES 

History  and  modernity  ;  music  and  verdure — Theatres  and 
Bathing — The  ambition  of  Montevideo — Carnival — The  origins  of  two 
great  fortunes — More  historic  buildings  and  the  "  Palace  of  Gold  " — 
The  Buenos  Aires  "  tube  "  ;  its  tramways — Comparative  expense  of 
living — Opera  houses  and  theatres — Night  and  day — Ever-changing 
Buenos  Aires — The  Jockey  Club — -Palermo  and  the  Avenida  de 
Alvear — Fashion  moves  northwards — Corso  and  race-course — 
Gambling — The  agricultural  show — Hurlingham — The  Tigre — The 
Recoleta — "  The  Bond  Street  of  the  South  " — Hotels — Buenos 
Aires  not  a  hot-bed  of  vice — Marriage  and  mourning — "  Conven- 
tillos  " — Fashion  in  Buenos  Aires  and  Montevideo     .  .  .79 

CHAPTER   Vn 

FINANCE    AND    COMMERCE 

Susceptibility  of  South  America  to  conditions  of  the  European 
money  markets  ;  early  fear  of  Balkan  complications — Relatively 
bad  times — Transient  "  crises  " — August,  191 4 — Protective  mea- 
sures— "  It's  an  ill  wind  that  blows  no  one  any  good  " — Still  further 
insistence  on  the  need  of  agricultural  population — Currencies — The 
Argentine  "  Conversion  "  Law — Former  gold  speculation  and  banks 
of  issue — Golden  opportunity  for  British  trade — A  South  American 
view  of  the  Monroe  doctrine — The  "  Hustler  " — British  manufactu- 
rers and  the  South  American  trade — How  to  lose  it — How  to  keep  it 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAGE 

— Uruguay's  creditable  reputation— General  commercial  conditions 
in  Argentina  and  Uruguay — The  Buenos  Aires  Stock  Exchange — 
Gambling — Sound  securities  :  the  Argentine  Hypothecary  Bank, 
and  National,  Provincial,  and  Municipal  Debenture  Bonds— The 
new  and  the  old  Buenos  Aires  corn  exchanges — More  about  the 
"  Bolza  " — Fictitious  booms — A  great  bear — The  death  of  public 
speculation — Cedulas  and  Cedulas — Credito  Argentino  .  .       93 


CHAPTER   Vni 

RAILWAYS,    PORTS    AND    IMMIGRATION 

An  Imperium  in  Imperio — ^Foreign  capital  in  River  Plate  railways 
— Gauges — The  "  Mitre  "  Law — Luxurious  travelling — An  U.S. 
Syndicate — Argentine  national  railways — The  Transandine  and  Entre 
Rios  lines — The  projected  southern  transandine  line — Maritime 
accessibility  of  the  River  Plate  Repubhcs — Chief  ports — Spanish 
immigration  .......     122 

CHAPTER   IX 

GENERAL   STATISTICS 

Increase  of  trade  during  past  two  decades — United  Kingdom  im- 
ports of  grain  and  meat — U.K.  exports,  showing  importance  of 
Argentina  and  Uruguay — British  capital  invested  in  Argentina 
during  first  half  of  1914 — Trade  of  the  U.S.  with  S.  America — U.S. 
exports,  showing  importance  of  Argentina — Argentine  imports  from 
Europe  in  191 3 — The  rich  productiveness  of  Uruguay — Increase  of 
Argentine  and  Uruguayan  exports — Public  works  and  small  budget 
surpluses — Buenos  Aires  commercial  and  industrial  census,  1914  ; 
bread  and  smoke  (!) — Italian  and  Spanish  retail  traders — Russians 
and  Jews  .  .  .  .  .  •  .127 

CHAPTER   X 

A  GLANCE  AT   THE   PROVINCES   AND   NATIONAL  TERRITORIES  OF  ARGENTINA, 
AND    THE    INTERIOR    OF    URUGUAY 

BUENOS  AIRES,  the  "  Queen  "  Province  :  Its  stillborn  capital 
— Famous  museum  and  university — Bahia  Blanca — Mar-dcl-Plata, 
a  veritable  round  of  gaiety  ;  the  new  Port — Potatoes — Other  chief 
towns  of  the  province — Cereals  and  live  stock— Great  agricultural 
and  industrial  activity — Generally  uninteresting  scenery  :  model 
farms  and  fine  country  houses  .  .  .  •  -139 

SANTA  FE  :  Forests,  live  stock  and  agriculture — An  old-world 
capital — Busy  Rosario — Other  ports — Mixed  agriculture  and 
stock  farming — Milling  and  other  industries  .  .  -144 

CORDOBA  :  The  gaucho  wars— The  learned  city — The  Cathe- 
dral   and    university — Monks    and    nuns — Mediaeval    atmosphere — 


X  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

PAGE 

Some  personal  recollections  :  religion  and  roulette — Alta  gracia — 
Mar  chiquita — Chief  towns — The  Dique  San  Roque — A  projected 
canal  ........     145 

ENTRE  RIOS  :  No  longer  the  "  Poor  Sister  " — The  railway 
ferry  service — City  of  Parana  ;  Urquiza  and  Sarmiento — Concordia 
— Large  land  holdings — Extract  of  meat        .  .  .  -15° 

CORRIENTES  :  Where  the  Diligence  still  runs — Descendants 
of  the  Conquistadores — San  Juan  de  la  Vera  de  las  siete  Corrientes — 
Other  chief  towns — Good  possibilities  but  commercial  apathy — 
Lake  Ibera — A  zoological  invasion — General  San  Martin       .  -153 

SAN  LUIS  :  Alfalfa — Irrigation — Grapes  and  wine — Minerals — 
Native  indolence  .  .  .  .  .  .  .156 

SANTIAGO  DEL  ESTERO  :  Irrigation  and  cereal  cultivation— 
Alfalfares — Quebracho  and  charcoal — Amenities  of  the  Santia- 
gueflo — Quack  doctors  and  wise  women  ;  a  cure  for  toothache — 
Dangers  of  quackery    .  .  .  .  .  .  .158 

TUCUMAn  :  Smallest  Argentine  province,  but  important — 
Sugar — Former  difficulties  and  present  progress — The  city  of  Tucu- 
min — The  Declaration  of  Independence — Palatial  villas — The 
Plaza  Independencia,  theatre  and  casino — Irrigation — Snow-capped 
mountains  and  fertile  valleys  .  .  .  .  .160 

CATAMARCA  :  Sparse  population — Irrigation  and  transport ;  a 
new  government  line — Minerals — The  Campo  del  Pucara  and  the  city 
of  Catamarca  ;  a  sleepy  hollow — Native  lethargy  ;  a  Spanish  aris- 
tocracy— Unexploited  mineral  wealth  .  .  .  .163 

LA  RIOJA  :  Water,  labour  and  transport  needed — Maize  and 
tropical  fruits — Wine — Irrigation — A  new  national  railway — 
Mineral  wealth  ;  La  Famatina — The  city  of  La  Rioja  ;  arrested 
development — Remains  of  Inca  civilization — Mountain  and  plain    .     165 

JUJUY  :  The  brothers  Leach — A  picturesque  province— The 
Humahuaca  dialect — General  Lavalle — The  blue  and  white  flag 
and  the  "  Sun  of  May  " — A  primitive  population       .  .  .167 

SALTA  :  "  The  Cradle  of  the  Republic  "— Jabez  Balfour— The 
gaucho — Coya  Indians — Need  of  intelligent  and  energetic  popula- 
tion— Ponchos — Rubber — Hot  springs — No  soldiery,  only  armed 
police  ........     169 

MENDOZA  :  Wine—"  Entre  San  Juan  y  Mendoza  "—Alfalfa 
— San  Rafael — Irrigation — Earthquakes — Public  gardens  and  the 
West  Park — Wine  manufacture — Table  grapes — Peaches — Coal 
and  petroleum — The  Puente  del  Inca — Hot  springs    .  .  -174 

SAN  JUAN  :  Former  financial  recalcitrance — Depreciated  paper 
— Irrigation  and  enforced  prosperity — A  new  railway — The  defeat 
of  the  Buenos  Aires  grape  ring — Old  colonial  charm   .  .  .178 

THE  PAMPA  CENTRAL  :  The  fifteenth  province  ?— Wheat, 
linseed  and  maize — Rapid  development — Shifting  sandhills — Three 
great  railways — Wool  and  hides — The  latent  landlord  in  excelsis — 
Need  of  a  real  colonization  policy  ;    settlers  wanted    .  .  .182 


CONTENTS  xi 

PAGE 

NEUQUEN  :  Chilean  colonies  and  trade — Wheat,  alfalfa  and 
vegetables — "  Tronador  "  ;  Scandinavian  scenery — Lake  Nahuel 
Huapi  and  Victoria  Island — Hot  and  medicinal  springs — Future 
wealth — Vast  irrigation — Rich  virgin  soil — Deep-water  ports  .     185 

RIO  NEGRO  :  Fertile  soil,  but  no  rainfall — Irrigation  and  the 
Lago  Pellegrini — Regulation  of  the  flow  of  the  river — Former  disas- 
trous floods — A  cUmatic  transformation — New  railway  lines — San 
Bias — Copper,  salt,  and  petroleum — Furious  winds — A  scheme  which 
failed     .........     188 

CHUBUT  :  Petroleum — The  Welsh  colony — "  Foreigners  " 
not  admitted — Lazy  descendants  of  active  forefathers — Sparse 
population — Wool  and  alfalfa — A  new  railway  .  .  •     I93 

SANTA  CRUZ  :  English  climate,  orchards  and  gardens  ;  far 
from  the  madding  crowd — Sheep — Wind  ! — Cold  storage — Wheat, 
oats  and  alfalfa  ;   apples  and  pears     .  .  .  .  .196 

TIERRA  DEL  FUEGO  :  No  volcanoes  in  "  Fire  Land  "—A 
cure  for  anarchy — Hardy  sheep — Seal  and  whale  fishing — Potatoes 
and  table  vegetables — The  Silesian  mission — Mr.  Bridges'  refuge — 
The  new  gaol — Gold  prospecting — "  De  Gustibus  !  "      .         .         .     197 

MISIONES  :  The  "  Imperio  Jesuitico  " — Practical  religion — 
Fairyland — The  Iguazii  Falls — Timber — Mate — Maize,  sugar  and 
fruit — Granite — Neglected  industries — Need  of  suitable  labour — 
Indians  then  and  now — A  projected  railway  to  the  junction  of  three 
republics  ........     200 

FORMOSA  :  Not  the  most  beautiful — No  man's  land — A  pro- 
jected railway — Quebracho — Alfalfa  and  maize — Again  the  Lati- 
fundio  question — A  fiscal  land  scandal — Landlords  and  squatters — 
Smuggling — Tobacco  and  sugar — Timber — Pleasant  memories  of 
the  River  Plate  .  .  .  .  .  .  .205 

URUGUAY  :  General  physical  and  climatic  characteristics — 
Flora — The  Uruguayan  Rio  Negro  the  dividing  line  of  general  physi- 
cal features — Fruit  and  vegetables — Flour — Soil — Minerals  and 
the  Mining  Laws  .  .  .  .  .  .  .212 

THE  CHACO  and  LOS  ANDES:  Timber  and  Minerals  .     214 

CHAPTER   XI 

AGRICULTURE 

Comparative  values  of  agricultural  exports — Railways  not  the  only 
causes  of  agricultural  extension — Railway  policy — Ambassadorial 
managers — Intensive  and  extensive  farming — "  Secondary  "  indus- 
tries— Bread  versus  meat — Minerals,  petroleum  and  pigs — Uru- 
guayan agriculture — River  Plate  cereal  exports — Wheat  and  alfalfa  ; 
Agricultural  dolce  far  niente — Again  "  population  !  " — An  economic 
deadlock — "  Colonists  " — Mr.  Herbert  Gibson's  views — Dr.  Fran- 
cisco Latzina — Cultivable  land  in  Argentina — The  Defensa  Agricola 
^Sefior  Ricardo  Pillado — Tabular  statistics — Latest  Argentine  har- 
vest and  cereal  export  estimates — Deficiency  of  official  Uruguayan 
statistics — General  soil  characteristics  .  .  .  -215 


xii  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


CHAPTER   XII 

LIVE   STOCK 

PACE 

The  "  History  of  Belgrano  " — The  first  horses  on  the  River  Plate 
— The  Goes'  cattle — The  first  goats  and  sheep — Early  export  trade 
— The  first  freezing  establishment — Amazing  pastoral  and  agricultural 
changes — The  "  discovery  "  of  alfalfa — Sheep — Fine  stock — Horses 
— Pigs  and  poultry — Tired  land — Tabular  statistics — Favourite 
breeds — Comparative  absence  of  disease — British  prohibition  of 
import  of  animals  on  the  hoof — Drought — Water  supplies  of  Uru- 
guay and  Argentina — A  windmill  which  was  not  erected — Fencing 
— Anglo-Saxon  enterprise — The  Argentine  Rural  Society  ;  its  herd 
and  flock  books — The  agricultural  and  live  stock  show — Trees — 
The  coming  colonist  and  mixed  farming — Tabular  statistics — The 
meat  trade :  its  history  from  the  seventeenth  to  the  present  century 
— Market  classification— Predominance  of  U.S.  interests  in  cold 
storage  industry — Influence  of  cold  storage  companies  on  fine  breed- 
ing-^Tabular  statistics  .  .  .  .  .  .249 

CHAPTER    XIII 

FORESTRY 

River  Plate  timber  and  fancy  woods — Senor  Mauduit's  lists 
and  descriptions — Argentina  and  Uruguay  considered  as  one 
arboricultural  area — Importance  of  this  subject — Railway  coach 
building — Shelter  for  cattle    .  .....     277 

CHAPTER    XIV 

LITERATURE    AND    ART 

Historians  and  poets — Other  writers — Art  awaits  development — 
Painting,  architecture,  literature  and  music — The  native  Drama — 
Oratory — Heroes  and  history — An  Argentine  sculptress — ^Wanted  : 
an  author  ........     299 

Index  ........:     303 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Views  on  Lake  Nahuel  Huapi',  Argentine  National 
OF  Neuquen      .... 


Front  Endpaper 
Frontispiece 

TO    FACE    I'AGE 

80 


Map  ..... 

A  Part  of  the  IguaziJ  Falls 

The  Plaza  Libertad,  Montevideo  . 

The  Avenida  de  Mayo,  Buenos  Aires 

The  Cathedral  and  Plaza  Victoria,  Buenos  Aires 

Transporter  Bridge,  Port  of  Buenos  Aires 

Grain  Elevators,  Madero  Dock,  Buenos  Aires 

Ruins  of  Jesuit  Buildings,  Mendoza,  Argentina 

A  Bit  of  the  Transandine  Railway,  Argentina 


Entrance  to  the  Summit  Tunnel  through  the  Andes  (Chilean 
Side)  ..... 

FUENTE   DEL   InCA  ;     MeNDOZA,    ARGENTINA 


Territory 


Head  Portion  of  the  Rio  Negro,  Argentina,  Great  Irrigation 
AND  Control  Works.    (Bird's-Eye  View) 

A  Typical  Small  "Camp"  Town  (Rivera,  Uruguay) 


86 
122 
126 

174 
176 

176 

17S 

186 

188 
212 


LIST  OF  DIAGRAMS 


I.  International   Trade   of   Argentina,   Brazil,   Chile,   and 

Uruguay    .  .  .  .  ...     133 


II.  Development  of  Argentine  Agriculture 

III.  Argentine  Meat  Trade 

IV.  Argentine  Frozen  and  Chilled  Meat  Exports 


243 
273 
275 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  AND  THANKS 

For  the  majority  of  the  Statistics  and  Statistical  Diagrams  contained 
in  this  book  the  Author  is  indebted  to  the  Division  of  Commerce 
and  Industry  of  tlie  Argentine  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and  par- 
ticularly to  the  kindness  and  courtesy  of  Senor  Ricardo  Pillado,  the 
Director-General  of  that  Division,  for  permission  for  their  reproduc- 
tion; for  others  to  Seiior  Emilio  Lahitte,  the  Director-General  of 
the  Division  of  Rural  Economy  and  Statistics  in  the  same  Ministry. 
And  in  Uruguay  to  Dr.  Julio  M.  Llamas,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  in  the  University  of  Montevideo,  and  Dr.  Daniel  Garcia 
Acevedo,  of  the  Uruguayan  Bar,  eminent  as  an  authority  on  Com- 
mercial Law. 

The  Author's  sincere  thanks  are  also  tendered  to  the  Buenos 
Aires  Great  Southern,  the  Buenos  Aires  Pacific,  and  the  Central 
Uruguay  of  Montevideo  Railway  Companies,  the  Royal  Mail  Steam 
Packet  Company,  Mitchell's  Library,  Buenos  Aires,  and  several 
private  persons  for  permission  to  reproduce  photographs  with  which 
this  book  is  illustrated;  to  the  Proprietors  of  The  Times  for  their 
consent  to  the  embodiment  under  the  heading  "  Currency  "  of  the 
material  portions  of  an  article  by  the  Author  which  appeared  in  the 
Special  South  American  Number  of  that  Newspaper  under  date 
December  28th,  1909  ;  to  the  Argentine  Committee  for  the  National 
Agricultural  and  Pastoral  Census  taken  in  1908  for  much  informa- 
tion ;  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gibson  for  his  very  kind  permission  to  cjuote 
portions  of  his  pamphlet,  "  The  Land  We  Live  On."  And  to  very 
many  ofificial  and  other  friends  of  different  Nationalities  for  help 
freely  given  to  the  literary  work  of  the  Author  in  the  past,  much  of 
which  help  has  borne  fruit  in  this  book. 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 
BEFORE  THE  WAR  AND  AFTER 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTORY 

A  TALE  of  the  Pampa^  tells  how  a  River  Plate 
farmer  of  bygone  days,  seeing  his  wife  and  child 
dead  of  pestilence  and  his  pastures  blackened  by 
fire,  fell  into  a  magic  slumber  born  of  the  lethargy  of 
despair. 

He  was  awakened,  many  years  afterwards,  by  the  scream 
of  a  railway  engine  at  his  boundary  ;  to  find  his  land  fenced 
in,  his  flocks  and  herds  improved  beyond  recognition,  and 
maize  and  wheat  waving  where  only  coarse  grass  had  been 
before. 

This  allegory  is  true. 
-     It  tells  the  whole  story  of  the  real  development  of  the 
River  Plate  Territories,  a  development  in  which  the  de- 
scendant  of  the   original  settlers  has  but   comparatively 
recently  begun  to  take  an  active  part. 

He,  the  Patriarch  of  the  soil,  lived  on  his  land  while 
English  capital  and  Italian  labour  opened  up  its  treasures 
to  the  world.  In  the  beginnings  of  Argentina  as  a  nation, 
his  property  consisted  of  vast  herds  of  long-horned,  bony 
cattle,  valuable  only  for  their  hides,  which  roamed  the 
Pampa  in  savage  freedom  ;    untcnded,  save  for  periodic 

^  Tipos  y  Paisajes  Argentinos,  by  Godofredo  Daireaux. 


2  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

slaughter  and   skinning  and   the  yearly  rounding  up  for 
the  marking  of  the  calves. 

Later,  came  the  acknowledgment  between  neighbours, 
living  at  vast  distances  from  one  another,  of  boundaries 
which  indicated  the  huge  areas  over  which  each  had  grazing 
rights.  Later  still  came  the  time  when  the  more  far-sighted 
of  such  men  bought  wire  and,  with  quebracho  posts,  ringed 
in  those  areas  as  their  own.  The  foreigner  and  his  railway 
t  did  the  rest  to  build  up  the  huge  fortunes  of  the  children 
and  grandchildren  of  those  far-sighted  Patriarchs.  For 
Patriarchs  they  were,  Pastoral  Kings  surrounded  by  half- 
caste  gauchos  who  lived  in  the  familiar  vassalage  of  the 
great  mud-walled,  grass-thatched  house,  and  spoke  in  the 
familiar  second  person  singular  still  in  use  among  Argentines 
towards  their  servants  ;  otherwise  only  employed  between 
members  of  the  same  family  or  close  friends.  Until  a  very 
few  years  ago,  these  great  Argentine  families  constituted 
Oligarchies  which  ruled  almost  absolutely  each  over  one  of 
the  more  distant  Provinces,  the  people  of  which  were  the 
descendants  of  the  vassals  of  their  forefathers.  The  full 
^  power  of  these  Provincial  Oligarchies  was  only  broken  by 
'  the  centralizing  policy  of  President  Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta 
(1906  to  1910).  The  curtailing  of  their  power  was  very 
necessary  for  the  credit  of  National  Finance  and  Justice,  for 
that  power  was  often  exercised  with  a  mediaeval  high- 
handedness unsuited  to  twentieth-century  ideas. 

The  disintegration  of  the  power  of  local  Oligarchies,  each 
of  which  completely  dominated  the  Congress  of  its  province, 
was  one  of  the  final  but  quite  necessary  steps  towards 
putting  the  house  of  Argentina  into  perfect  political  and 
financial  order  ;  especially  as  Provincial  Governors,  hitherto 
always  members  of  the  Oligarchic  families,  were  also  almost 
invariably  members  of  the  National  Senate.  Add  to  these 
considerations  the  further  one  that  the  Provincial  Courts 
had  somehow  or  other  gained  a  reputation  for  not  meting 
out  justice  to  political  friend  and  foe  alike,  and  that  much 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

complaint  was  heard  about  the  difficulties  encountered  by 
some  persons  in  even  working  the  way  of  their  cases  up  to 
the  admirably  impartial  hearing  of  the  Federal  High  Court 
of  Appeal ;  since,  for  instance,  it  is  difficult  to  appeal  from 
a  decision  which  has  not  been  given,  and  which  you  seem 
to  possess  no  means  to  obtain,  even  as  against  you. 

All  these  inconveniences  and  scandals  had  long  called 
imperatively  for  reform,  but  it  was  reserved  for  Dr.  Figueroa 
Alcorta  to  discover  the  way  to  successfully  bell  these 
powerful  provincial  cats. 

The  way  he  found  (which  is  referred  to  more  fully  in  a 
later  chapter)  was  essentially  South  American  ;  but,  as 
many  things  in  South  America  which  at  first  sight  appear 
strange  to  European  eyes  do,  it  worked  very  well. 

It  is  desirable  here,  however,  to  make  quite  clear  the 
fact  that  any  political  South  Americanisms  which  may  still 
survive  in  Argentina  are  strictly  confined  to  her  internal 
and  local  politics  and  administration.  Within  that  sphere 
it  might  almost  be  said  that  only  the  Judges  of  the  Federal 
High  Court  of  Appeal  keep  themselves  completely  clear  of 
any  shadow  of  suspicion.  If  you  get  to  the  Federal  High 
Court  you  have  the  Law  of  the  Land  administered  with  un- 
flinching impartiality.  The  only  leaning  of  which  that 
Tribunal  has  ever  been  accused  (and  that  only  jokingly)  is 
that  of  an  inclination  to  decide  against  the  Government. 
Because,  its  judges,  once  appointed,  cannot  be  removed 
unless  on  the  ground  of  gross  misconduct ;  whereas  all  other 
functionaries  in  the  country  are  more  or  less  liable  to  feel 
the  effects  of  political  influence.  The  National  foreign  or 
commercial  policy  is  also  as  transparently  pure  and  fair  as 
it  is  possible  to  be.  Argentina  knows  her  best  interests  much 
too  well  to  seem  even  to  offend  against  European  ethical 
standards  in  anything  which  touches  external  policy  or 
Foreign  interests,  however  remote. 

As  for  her  internal  politics,  these  have  been,  until  very 
recently,  at  all  events,  left  by  common  consent  of  foreigner 


4  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

and  native  alike  to  the  sweet  will  of  the  caste  of  professional 
politicians.  These  people  intrigue  for  place  and  profit  and 
have  vicissitudes,  triumphs  and  defeats,  without  the  real 
wealth-producers  of  the  country  knowing  or  caring  one  way 
or  another.  The  doings  of  the  Ministries  of  Finance,  Agri- 
culture (embracing  Commerce  and  Industry)  and  Public 
Works  and  the  legislation  affecting  matters  appertaining 
thereto  are  all  that  matter  to  the  Bankers,  Traders  and 
Agriculturists  or  the  great  Railway  Companies  ;  and  these 
leading  Official  and  Commercial  and  Industrial  Classes  are 
the  only  people  of  real  consequence  in  the  land  ;  unless  one 
adds  the  Municipal  Authorities  of  the  Cities  of  Buenos  Aires 
and  Bahia  Blanca. 

The  actual  Government,  however,  is  jealously  kept  in 
native  patrician  hands.  If  one  finds  a  foreign  name  in  the 
list  of  high  officials  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  the 
bearer  of  it  is  connected  by  marriage  with  one  of  what  may 
be  called  the  great  ruling  Argentine  families,  with  names 
recurrent  in  the  country's  History. 

These  families  constitute  the  real  aristocracy  of  the 
Republic,  and  are  mostly  possessed  of  very  great  wealth. 
Kind  and  sympathetically  courteous  to  the  stranger  as  are 
all  Argentines,  one  cannot  but  smile  when  one  finds  writers 
implying  that  entrance  into  Argentine  Society  is  easily 
effected  by  anyone  who,  as  I  once  saw  it  stated,  could  play 
a  good  hand  at  bridge. 

As  a  fact,  no  stranger  ever  becomes  a  member  of  the 
best  Argentine  Society  ;  he  may  find  himself  in  it  at  brief, 
fleeting  moments,  but  he  is  never  of  it.  As  in  the  aris- 
tocracies of  the  old  world,  all  its  members  are  connected 
more  or  less  remotely  by  blood  or  marriage,  usually  both, 
with  one  another.  One  may  know  intimately  many  men 
prominent  in  Argentine  Society,  may  be  received  by  them 
at  their  houses  now  and  again  and  mingle  there  v/ith  other 
men,  their  kindred  ;  but  the  charming  conversation  one 
enjoys  when  there  is  not  that  which  was  going  on  when  one 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

entered,  and  will  continue  after  one  has  left  again.  Argen- 
tine ladies  only  receive  on  set,  formal  occasions  ;  unless  in 
such  public  places  as  the  Palermo  Race-course  or  the  Rambla 
at  Mar-del-Plata.  Small  and  select  dinners  take  place  rather 
at  the  Jockey  Club  than  in  private  houses.  Under  a  some- 
what effusive  external  manner,  the  Argentine  has  all  the 
reserved  exclusiveness  of  his  Spanish  ancestors.  Gold  has 
its  weight  in  Argentina  as  elsewhere  ;  but  it  has  more 
efficacy  as  a  key  to  society  in  many  European  capitals  than 
in  Buenos  Aires  ;  notwithstanding  the  almost  childish  fond- 
ness of  Argentines  for  the  display  of  their  own  wealth,  a 
characteristic  which  makes  them  (and  other  Americans) 
beloved  in  Hotels  and  Restaurants  throughout  the  world. 
The  one  characteristic  for  which  the  Argentine  does  not  get 
full  credit  from  the  superficial  observer  is  the  very  strong 
vein  of  common  sense  which  underlies  his  more  immediately 
noticeable  affectation  of  manner  and  behaviour.  A  great 
deception  is  always  in  store  for  those  who  do  not  appreciate 
the  fact  that  the  most  boisterously  extravagant  Argentine 
never  really  loses  sight  of  the  fact  that  2  and  2  make  4  and 
no  more  and  no  less.  Yet  this  should  be  apparent  in  a 
nation  which  has  known  so  well  during  the  fifty  or  sixty 
years  of  its  real  development  how  to  let  the  foreigner  work 
out  that  development  at  a  good  profit  for  himself,  of  course, 
but  at  a  much  greater  one  for  them.  The  Argentine,  while 
availing  himself  of  every  advantage  derivable  from  the  influx 
into  his  country  of  foreign  Capital  and  Labour,  has  never 
really  loosed  his  hold  on  his  own  independent  Government 
nor  the  land.  His  land  is  and  has  always  been  the  source  of 
his  fortune,  and  to  his  land  he  clings  with  unrelaxing 
tenacity.  Is  there  a  good  bargain  to  be  made  in  real  property, 
it  is  an  Argentine  who  immediately  takes  advantage  of  it  to 
increase  his  probably  already  large  holding. 

He  it  is  who  most  readily  lends  money  on  mortgage,  at  a 
high  rate  of  interest,  on  real  property.  He  knows  only  of 
one  way  in  which  to  invest  the  surplus  of  his  income — in 


6  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

land  or  the  things  intimately  connected  with  land  and  its 
immediate  productivity.  Agricultural  enterprise  he  under- 
stands and  daily  appreciates  more  and  more  its  scientific 
working.  Intensive  farming  is  already  practised  by  him  in 
those  parts  of  the  country  where  land  is  most  valuable. 
He  breeds  as  fine  cattle  and  sheep  as  any  foreign  breeder  or 
colonizing  company. 

But  for  commerce  other  than  purely  agricultural  he  has 
no  bent.  So  he  wisely  leaves  it  in  the  hands  of  the  stranger, 
who  thereby  develops  his  towns,  and  builds  railways  and 
tramways  ;  all  of  which  go  to  the  enhancement  of  the  values 
of  Argentine  real  property. 

Now  and  again  there  is  a  pseudo-patriotic  clamour  in 
certain  sections  of  the  Native  Press  over  what  is  denounced 
as  the  exploitation  of  Argentina  by  the  foreigner.  But  all 
this  is  mere  froth  born  of  joumahstic  need  of  "  copy  "  : 
mere  great-gooseberry  matter  for  a  dull  season.  That  it  is 
no  more  was  proved  a  few  years  ago  by  the  great  English 
Railway  Companies. 

They  became  weary  of  being  denounced  as  the  worst  kind 
of  exploiters  of  an  innocent  bucolic  people ;  and,  in  reply, 
published  broadcast  an  announcement  that  they  would 
transfer  a  certain  large  quantity  of  their  shares  at  par  (the 
market  price  being  considerably  higher)  to  Argentines  who 
might  thereby  qualify  themselves  not  only  for  a  share  in  the 
Companies'  profits,  but  for  seats  on  the  Boards  of  Directors  ; 
where  they  could  have  a  voice  in  the  management  of  what 
was  being  denounced  as  a  vast  system  of  exploitation.  To 
this  very  liberal,  almost  quixotic,  offer  there  was  no  re- 
sponse. For  the  simple  reason  that,  whilst  the  railway 
dividends  did  not  exceed  7%,  land  mortgages  carried  10% 
or  12%,  and  the  yield  from  immediate  agricultural  enter- 
prise proportionately  more. 

Every  branch  line  opened  by  the  railways,  often  at  huge 
expense  of  expropriation,  spells  fortune  to  Argentines.  If 
the  railway  gains  in  a  less  degree  who  should  complain  ? 


INTRODUCTORY  7 

No  one  really  does,  everyone  really  concerned  being  much 
too  well  aware  on  which  side  his  own  particular  bread  is 
buttered.  As  I  have  said,  the  Argentine  is  possessed  of  a 
quite  preponderating  amount  of  common  sense. 

His  attitude  towards  the  foreigner  is,  "I  give  you  all 
liberty  and  protection  for  any  enterprise  you  may  wish  to 
carry  out  in  my  country,  by  which  you  may  become  very 
rich  ;  but  the  country  itself  and  nearly  all  the  land  in  it  is 
mine  and  will  remain  so." 

The  last  thing  the  Argentine  will  part  with  as  an  individual 
or  as  a  nation  is  land. 

Grants  of  fiscal  lands  were  made  in  the  past  with  scanda- 
lous liberality  for  political  services,  but  to  Argentines. 
Mighty  little  of  such  lands,  none  of  any,  then,  apparent 
value,  went  to  foreigners  ;  whatever  they  might  have  done 
for  the  country's  development  and  good.  Now,  few  grants 
of  such  lands  are  made  to  anyone ;  the  National  and  Pro- 
vincial Governments  appreciating  too  fully  the  advantages 
of  their  retention  as  aids  to  power  and  wealth. 

In  all  this  the  Argentine  is  right  from  his  natural  point  of 
view  ;  but  his  obstinate  maintenance  of  it  is  gradually 
bringing  certain  economic  problems  of  vital  importance  to 
a  stage  when  some  way  will  have  to  be  found  out  of  the 
dilemmas  which  they  already  present. 

The  chief  of  these  problems  is  that  of  agricultural  labour. 
What  inducement  does  Argentina  offer  to  the  class  of 
colonist  she  needs  most,  the  man  with  a  wife  and  family  to 
aid  him  in  his  work  and  with,  perhaps,  a  small  amount  of 
Capital  ? 

He  will  find  plenty  of  work  and  people  to  employ  his 
labour  at  a  liberal  wage  as  soon  as  he  lands.  He  will  be 
taken,  if  he  so  wish,  free  of  all  cost  to  himself,  to  one  or 
other  of  the  more  or  less  distant  parts  of  the  Republic, 
where  he  may  be  set  to  work  on  virgin  soil  at  a  wage,  or, 
may  be,  on  a  half  share  of  profits  for  a  period  of  three  years. 
On  the  scene  of  his  industry  he  will  find  an  Italian  or  Galician 


8  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

storekeeper  who  will  supply  his  every  reasonable  want  on 
credit,  taking  as  security  the  share  to  come  to  him  of  the 
profits  from  the  land  to  be  worked.  The  storekeeper  will 
also  charge  a  high  rate  of  interest  on  prices  of  his  own  fixing, 
unembarrassed  by  any  competitors  within  a  radius  of  very 
many  miles ;  or,  if  there  be  such,  he  and  they  will  know  well 
enough  how  to  preserve  a  rate  of  profit  which  would  astonish 
an  European  shopkeeper. 

At  the  end  of  three  years  the  landlord  will  have  his  land 
in  good  working  order, ^  and  the  storekeeper  will  have  most, 
if  not  all,  of  the  new  colonist's  share  of  profits.  The  latter 
can  then,  if  he  likes,  have  some  more  virgin  land  on  similar 
terms.  He  is  a  mere  labourer,  a  worker  for  others,  with  no 
betterment  on  his  own  horizon. 

There  is  as  yet  no  real  practically  working  official 
machinery  by  which  he  can  obtain  a  direct  grant  of  land  in 
freehold  to  himself ;  such  as  exists,  with  other  added 
facilities,  in  each  of  our  own  great  agricultural  dependencies 
such  as  Canada,  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 

For  this  reason  alone,  the  rural  population  of  Argentina 
has  almost  ceased  to  show  much  more  than  a  vegetative 
increase.  The  population  of  the  whole  Republic  is  that  of 
greater  London  spread  over  an  area  only  a  very  little  less 
than  that  of  Germany,  Austria- Hungary,  Belgium,  Denmark, 
France,  Holland,  Italy,  Norway,  Portugal,  Sweden  and 
Switzerland  put  together. 

This  lack  of  increase  in  the  rural  population  is  not  due  to 
Argentina  being  a  country  unknown  to  the  appropriate 
class  of  people.  There  are  thousands  of  Italian  peasants 
who  go  there  regularly  every  year  as  harvesters,  and  who 
return  to  their  own  country  as  soon  as  the  crops  are  gathered 
in.  They  know  Argentina  and  the  natural  richness  of  her 
resources  as  well  as  do  born  Argentines,  but  they  also  know 
that  they  cannot  get  land.  Only  wages  ;  the  purchasing 
power  of  which  is  so  much  greater  in  Italy  that  there  they 

^  Though  see  Mr.  Herbert  Gibson's  opinion,  quoted  later. 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

can  live  on  them  in  semi-idleness  for  the  remainder  of  the 
year,  whereas  they  would  attain  no  greater  pecuniary 
advantage  by  remaining  and  working  permanently  in 
Argentina,  where  the  cost  of  living  is  relatively  very  great. 
So  they  remain  "  swallows  "  as  they  are  called,  coming  and 
going  with  the  beginning  and  close  of  the  harvest  season. 

If  Argentina  wants  settlers,  and  she  does  need  them 
badly,  she  must  make  up  her  mind  to  give  them  land. 

And  she  must  also  make  a  thorough  overhaul  of  the  titles 
to  all  lands  as  yet  not  under  cultivation.  Because  many  of 
such  lands  are  merely  traps  for  the  unwary  who  may  be 
induced  to  occupy  and  develop  them  only  to  find  himself, 
after  he  has  ploughed  and  planted,  called  upon  to  pay  rent 
to  some  resident  in  Buenos  Aires  or  some  other  town  whose 
property  they  turn  out  to  be,  under  some  long-forgotten 
Government  grant,  and  who  has  not  only  never  visited  them, 
but  has  also  practically  lain  in  wait  for  some  innocent  settler 
to  develop  them  under  the  impression  that  they  were  his  own. 
Cases  of  this  kind  have  happened  over  and  over  again  ;  and 
the  deluded  settler,  who  may  have  even  purchased  the  land 
in  question  at  a  public  auction  or  have  obtained  it  from  some 
self-styled  colonizing  Company,  finds  himself  with  nothing 
but  a  vista  of  wearisome  and  costly  litigation  before  he  can 
hope  to  grasp  a  usually  very  elusive  remedy  for  his  wrong. 
Generally,  he  gives  the  whole  thing  up  in  despair  and  be- 
comes a  tenant  of  the  land  on  which  he  has  already  spent  all 
his  small  capital.  These  things  are  also  known  to  the  Italian 
harvester,  and  the  knowledge  of  them  acts  as  a  further  de- 
terrent to  his  becoming  a  settler. 

As  Argentina  is  blessed  with  almost  the  best  possible  laws 
about  everything  sublunary,  she  has,  naturally,  first-rate 
colonization  regulations.  Only  these  are  confined  to  her 
statute  books  and  sundry  pamphlets  which  lie  in  dust- 
covered  heaps  in  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture.  But  there  is 
as  yet  no  real  working  machinery  for  the  carrying  out  in 
practice  of  all  these  excellent  embodiments  of  the  results 


10  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  experience  of  farming  colonization  all  the  world  over. 
There  are  no  officials  whose  exclusive  duty  it  is  to  attend  to 
the  multiple  exigencies  of  true  colonization,  and  none 
capable  of  such  work  if  they  were  suddenly  called  upon  to 
do  it,  for  lack  of  the  necessary  experience. 

An  intending  colonist  may  therefore  land  in  Buenos  Aires 
with  a  small  but  sufficient  amount  of  capital  for  a  reasonable 
start  in,  say,  Australia  or  Canada,  and  may  wander  about 
that  city  till,  if  he  be  foolish  enough,  his  money  is  all  spent 
without  ever  having  found  any  Government  office  or  official 
willing  or  in  a  position  to  put  him  into  possession  of  the  land 
he  wants. 

He  usually,  after  a  few  weeks  of  fruitless  search,  goes 
back  to  Australia  or  New  Zealand  or  wherever  else  he  may 
have  come  from,  disgusted  with  Argentina  and  her  ways  ; 
of  which  he,  on  getting  back,  gives  an  account  which 
effectually  damps  off  any  existing  enthusiasm  in  his  neigh- 
bourhood for  emigration  to  the  River  Plate  for  a  long  while 
to  come. 

The  Argentine  Government  spends  plenty  of  money  in 
advertisement,  and  true  advertisement,  of  the  fertility  and 
marvellous  cHmates  of  a  Republic  which  extends  over  35 
degrees  of  latitude,  but  neglects  to  make  provision  for  those 
who  may  desire  to  respond  actively  to  its  propaganda. 
This  neglect  is  due,  really,  to  an  inherent  incapacity  for 
detail,  part  of  the  Argentine  nature  which,  therefore,  is 
terribly  prone  to  get  tired  half-way  through  a  job.  In  South 
America,  generally,  a  wonderful  amount  of  enthusiasm  is 
always  available  for  the  planning  of  new  schemes.  The 
declamatory  exposition  of  their  sovereign  virtues  and  glory 
amid  the  acclamations  of  sympathetic  Board  or  Committee 
meetings  is  a  grateful  task ;  as  is  that  of  the  dissemination 
of  these  discourses  in  pamphlet  form,  in  which  also  the  full 
list  of  the  names  of  the  originators  and  supporters  of  the 
scheme  appears.  It  is,  however,  when  practice  shows  un- 
workable flaws  in  splendid  theories,  when  the  drudgery  of 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

adapting  high-flown  principles  to  plain  everyday  drab  facts 
must  take  the  place  of  inaugural  banquets  and  florid  speeches, 
that  Argentine  enthusiasm  has  a  regrettable  way  of  petering 
out.  Soon,  something  newer  and  of  a  different  kind  is  started 
by  someone  else.  The  meetings  and  banquets  are  held  in  its 
honour  by  other  groups  and  the  former  scheme  passes  to  a 
shadowy  land,  the  way  to  which  is  always  kept  paved  with 
a  plenitude  of  good  intentions. 

Capital  will  always  be  forthcoming  for  profitable  enter- 
prise ;  as  will  Labour  if  that  enterprise  be  made  profitable 
to  the  worker — a  good  and  useful  class  of  whom  can  only  be 
induced  to  emigrate  by  the  prospect  of  permanent  better- 
ment of  the  conditions  of  life.  The  natural  ambition  of 
every  man  is  to  work  for  himself,  to  be  the  master  of  the 
results  of  his  own  efforts  and  to  possess  those  results  as  a 
provision  for  his  old  age  and  his  children.  This  a  new 
country  or  colony  must  offer  if  it  would  obtain  the  high 
level  of  intelligent  labour  which  it  needs  for  its  fullest  and 
best  development. 

On  the  other  hand  no  one  need  starve  or  go  hungry  for 
long  in  any  of  the  countries  of  the  River  Plate  ;  unless  he 
elects  to  be  and  to  remain  a  persistent  loafer  in  one  of  the 
large  towns.  Even  then  he  has  only  to  ask  and  he  will 
receive  food,  at  almost  any  restaurant  or  private  house.  If 
he  refuse  to  beg  or  to  leave  town,  he  may  suffer  hunger  and 
thirst,  otherwise  he  cannot.  To  begin  with  he  can  always 
get  a  job  at  one  thing  or  another  from  any  of  the  numerous 
private  agencies  which  have  standing  orders  for  labour,  and 
even  schoolmasters,  for  the  "  Camp,"  and  which  are  as  avid 
of  candidates  for  such  jobs  as  any  crimp  of  the  old  days  was 
for  men  of  any  kind  to  sling  aboard  a  ship. 

Once  in  the  camp  any  man  who  has  had  the  grit  to  go 
there  is  sure  of  finding  someone  wanting  some  kind  of 
work  which  he  can  do  in  some  sort  of  fashion.  There  he  will 
recover  such  of  his  normal  health  and  strength  as  he  may 
have  lost  as  a  city  unemployed,  and  will  soon  shake  into 


12  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

a  capacity  for,  and  get,  something  better  to  do  than  his  first 
job.» 

The  native  agricultural  labourer  or  "  peon  "  is  a  very  free 
and  easy  and  light-hearted  kind  of  person,  and  must  be 
treated  accordingly  if  his  services  are  to  be  retained.  He  is 
never  rude  unless  in  answer  to  obviously  intentional  offence 
offered  to  himself,  and  will  work  very  much  harder  for  an 
employer  he  likes  than  for  one  he  finds  unsympathetic. 
Indeed  he  will  only  remain  with  the  latter  on  his  own  tacit 
understanding  that  he  takes  things  easily. 

When  he  has  accumulated  a  few  dollars  of  wages  he  will 
take  himself  off  to  the  nearest  store  or  township  and  indulge 
in  such  dissipation  as  the  place  affords.  From  thence  he 
departs  with  perhaps  a  few  cheap  handkerchiefs  or  other 
small  finery,  in  the  breast  of  his  blouse,  which  he  bestows 
as  gifts  at  various  friendly  cottages  ;  at  each  of  which  he 
may  while  away  a  day,  partaking  of  pot  luck,  a  shake  down 
on  the  floor,  and  innumerable  mates  and  cigarettes,  making 
himself  merrily  agreeable  to  his  hosts.  When  he  gets  tired 
of  this,  or  has  exhausted  the  immediate  circle  of  his  friends, 
he  will  return  to  work  on  the  property  on  which  he  left  off ; 
or  somewhere  else  should  he  find  himself  not  as  well  received 
on  his  return  as  he  had  hoped. 

It  is  pretty  much  all  one  to  him.  An  experienced  native 
peon  need  never  go  far  begging  for  a  job. 

These  men  are  strong  and  wiry,  capable  of  spurts  of  very 
hard  work  indeed  ;  so  that,  even  with  frequent  intervals  for 
chat  with  everyone  available,  their  average  day's  work  is 
usually  by  no  means  a  bad  one.     Severity  in  an  employer 

^  still  the  following  words,  which  occur  in  an  anonymous  work  on 
Uruguay  issued  by  authority  of  the  Consulate-General  of  that  country  in 
London  in  1883,  are  as  essentially  true  to-day  as  they  were  then. 

"  It  cannot  too  often  be  repeated  that  only  two  classes  of  emigrants  are 
fitted  for  the  New  World  :  those  who  are  accustomed  to  manual  labour 
.  .  .  and  those  who  have  capital  to  invest.  Clerks  and  penmen  should 
know  to  whom  and  in  what  capacity  they  are  going." 

Argentines  and  Uruguayans  can  themselves  supply  all  the  book- 
learning  and  clerkly  devices  as  yet  needed  on  the  River  Plate. 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

they  will  take  with  perfect  good  humour  ;  but  any  affected 
superiority,  or  "  side,"  on  his  part  will  meet  with  a  very 
contemptuous  resentment.  They  are  true  sons  of  a  Republic, 
though  holding  school-learning  in  the  deep  respect  observable 
in  peasantry  almost  all  the  world  over. 

The  Argentine  peon  inherits  much  of  the  ready  wit  and 
extraordinary  gift  of  repartee  of  his  immediate  ancestor 
the  GAUCHO  ;  of  whom  he  is  the  modern  representative.  With 
whom,  however,  a  concertina  has  most  unfortunately  taken 
the  place  of  the  guitar.  But  as  a  bachelor  he  is  the  same 
flirtatious,  lady-killing  scamp  ;  loving  often  and  riding  away 
from,  most  frequently  instead  of  with,  the  lady  of  his 
ephemeral  choice. 

His  wit,  and  hers,  most  frequently  take  the  form  of 
double  entente.  An  interchange  of  chaff  has  always  one 
perfectly  innocent  superficial  meaning  and  another  the 
realization  of  which  would  redden  the  ears  of  a  British 
bargee.  Both  parties  to  this  skilled  contest  of  phrases 
keep  perfectly  immobile  countenances  and  neither  gives  a 
sign,  except  by  his  or  her,  always  latent,  reply,  of  any 
perception  of  the  underlying  significance  of  the  con- 
versation. 

This  exchange  of  wit  is  a  form  of  art  derived  from  the 
gaucho  Payadores  or  minstrels,  who  improvised  their  songs 
in  verses  which,  on  the  face  of  them,  were  hymns  to  Nature 
in  its  purer  forms,  and  contrived  simultaneously  to  either 
hugely  amuse  ribald  company  or  else  to  convey  insult  to  a 
present  rival  payador  who  answered  in  like  manner  in  his 
turn  ;  hidden  insult  being  thus  intentionally  heaped  on 
insult  till  a  fight  with  knives  succeeded  singing.  A  fight  in 
which  all  present  took  sides  and  joined. 

Thus  were  Sundays  enjoyed  in  the  pulperias  (canteens) 
of  the  older  times,  over  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

A  now  almost  lost  art  of  those  days  was  the  knife  play  in 
which  the  gaucho  was  then  an  extraordinary  adept.  Even 
now  gauchos  may  be  found,  in  the  distant  northern  Provinces, 


14  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

who  in  a  duel,  according  as  it  be  a  serious  or  a  playful  one, 
can  kill  or  just  draw  a  pin-prick's  show  of  blood  at  will  from 
their  adversary.  In  these  duels  the  knife  is  kept  in  con- 
stant rapid,  dazzling  movement,  while  the  -poncho  or 
gaucho  shawl,  with  a  slit  through  which  the  head  is  passed 
when  wearing,  is  wrapped  round  the  left  arm  which  is  used 
as  a  guard. 

The  gaucho  was  a  picturesque  figure  in  his  chiripd^  or 
festal,  wide-bottomed,  lace-frilled  trousers,  a  broad  leathern 
girdle  studded  with  silver  coins  and  his  silver-mounted,  high- 
pommelled  saddle.  The  chiripd  and  girdle  remain  ;  and 
one  may  still  see  a  camp  dandy  glorious  on  feast-days  in  a 
saddle  adorned  with  silver  mountings. 

But  the  cow-boy  utihty  of  the  gaucho  waned  with  the 
advent  of  scientific  farming.  He  had  no  taste  nor  aptitude 
for  such  new-fangled  ideas  ;  and  now  his  sons  are  mostly 
to  be  found  in  the  army,  the  police,  or  that  very  useful  body 
of  firemen  and  soldiers  too,  the  corps  of  "  Bomberos,"  men 
who  can  be  relied  on  at  any  moment  to  quell  a  fire  or  a  riot 
in  their  own  very  effective  way.  They  fear  neither  flames 
nor  turbulent  strikers,  and  are  only  too  ready,  in  the  case  of 
the  latter,  to  shoot  first  and  listen  to  orders  afterwards. 
Another  body  of  men  drawn  almost  exclusively  from  gaucho 
sources  is  the  "  Squadron  of  Security  "  ;  a  mounted  corps  of 
steel-cuirassed  and  helmeted  semi-military  police,  also  used 
to  clear  the  streets  of  political  or  other  disturbances.  Three 
trumpet  blasts  sounded  in  quick  succession  are  the  signal  for  a 
charge  in  hues  extending,  for  instance,  over  the  whole  breadth 
of  the  Avenida  de  Mayo.  Such  is  the  law  and  everyone,  as  in 
England,  is  presumed  to  know  it.  If  he  do  not,  and  therefore 
fail  to  take  prompt  refuge  down  a  side  street  or  in  a  shop,  so 
much  the  worse  for  him.  The  Avenida  will  be  cleared  even  if 
he  be  taken  to  the  Asistencia  Publica  as  a  consequence  of  the 

^  The  chiripd,  or  primitive  native  substitute  for  trousers,  is  formed  of 
a  shawl-like  blanket.  This  is  wrapped  round  the  loins,  kilt-fashion  ;  after 
which  it  is  brought  up  between  the  legs,  from  back  to  front,  and  the  end 
tucked  through  the  girdle,  to  hang  again  down  in  front. 


INTRODUCTORY  15 

process,  without  any  valid  claim  for  damages.  He  heard  the 
"  Clarion  "  and  is  assumed  to  have  contumaciously  dis- 
regarded its  warning. 

It  might  be  thought  that  the  vegetative  increase  of  such  a 
hardy  nucleus  of  native  population  would  suffice  for  the 
Labour  needs  of  the  country.  There  are,  however,  many 
reasons  for  the  fact  that  it  does  not.  The  chief  of  these  is 
the  general  refractoriness  of  the  Indian  to  the  process  of 
education  on  the  hues  of  the  white  races.  You  cannot  by 
any  means  make  a  white  man  out  of  an  Indian  any  more 
than  you  can  of  a  Negro.  And  the  gaucho  has  usually 
more  Indian  (and  Negro,  from  the  slave  days)  blood  in  him 
than  he  has  white. 

Unrivalled  in  the  days  when  vast  hordes  of  semi-savage  cattle 
needed  rounding  up  and  cutting  out  with  his  lazo  and  holea- 
dora,  the  gaucho  has  not  always  the  patience  nor  the  regard  for 
detail  needed  for  the  care  of  prize  Durhams,  Polled  Angus  or 
Herefords  ;  nor  is  he  at  his  best  with  modern  agricultural 
machinery.  Neither  does  his  character  lend  itself  to  the  dull 
discipline  expected  and  necessary  on  a  farm  to-day.  He  can 
no  longer  with  impunity  stay  the  extra  day  or  two  at  the 
canteen  to  which  his  savings  entitle  him  ;  and  on  the  farm 
he  finds  himself  confined  to  the  more  subservient  work. 
Against  all  this  his  native  pride  rebels,  and  he  gradually 
drifts  into  the  army  or  the  police,  where  he  is  gradually 
being  exterminated  by  the  disintegrating  effects  of  idleness 
and  lack  of  the  hard  physical  exercise  which  kept  his 
ancestors  in  health.  A  greedy  meat-eater,  he  succumbs  as 
often  to  stomach  as  to  lung  trouble. 

Population  !  In  every  other  way  nature  is  most  bountiful 
on  the  River  Plate.  If  only  Argentina  were  more  thickly 
peopled  her  wealth  would  be  phenomenal  in  the  world.  For 
it  must  not  be  thought  that  grain  and  cattle  sum  up  the 
whole  extent  of  her  possible  productivity.  Far  from  it :  her 
output  has  hitherto  been  confined  to  these  commodities 
because  they  were  so  obviously  those  which  most  readily 


16  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

yield  immediate  profits,  without  in  the  first  place  demanding 
any  great  outlay  of  capital  or  scientific  acquirements.  Cattle 
there  have  always  been  on  the  Pampa  since  the  time  of  the 
Goes'  cows  ;  ^  and  as  for  grain,  the  virgin  soil  barely  needed 
scratching  for  its  growth.  Thus  cereal  cultivation  and  cattle 
raising  naturally  became  the  national  industries,  and  the 
population  has  never  been  sufficient  to  attend  even  to 
all  the  possibilities  of  these,  let  alone  others.  Never- 
theless, there  are  many  more  which  Nature  has  in  store 
for  these  marvellous  *  countries  with  their  great  variety 
of  climates. 

Sugar  (pretty  badly  exploited  till  recently),  coffee,  cotton, 
tobacco  (already  grown  in  the  North  and  even,  to  a  com- 
paratively small  extent,  in  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires)  and 
timber  of  many  and  valuable  kinds  are  among  the  future 
produce  of  the  Southern  Republics  ;  while  the  wool  output 
of  Argentina  could  be  greatly  increased. 

No  lack  of  capital  would  be  felt  were  there  the  necessary 
skilled  management  and  labour  available  for  the  production 
of,  leaving  sugar  and  timber  apart  for  the  moment,  let  us  say 
cotton  and  tobacco. 

In  the  cultivation  of  both  of  these,  much  depends  on 
selection  of  kinds  according  to  soil  and  climate  and  on  the 
right  moment  for  gathering.  It  is  owing  to  ignorance  in 
these  regards  as  well  as  to  labour  difficulties  that  several 
attempts  to  cultivate  these  crops  on  a  large  scale  have 
hitherto  only  resulted  in  failure. 

Given  the  necessary  science  and  labour,  soil  and 
climate  may  well  be  trusted  to  do  the  rest  for  assured 
success. 

Nothing  is  lacking  to  the  countries  of  the  River  Plate  but 
population.  Given  adequate  human  agency  to  exploit  their 
evident  and  latent  treasures,  they  have  before  them  a  future 

^  The  first  cattle  on  the  River  Plate  Territories  were  seven  cows  and 
a  bull,  brought  down  through  Paraguay  from  Brazil  by  two  Portuguese, 
the  brothers  Cipriano  and  Vicente  Goes. 


INTRODUCTORY  17 

prosperity   which   can   only   be   called   incalculable   in   its 
marvellous  immensity. 

Note. — A  fact  that  cannot  escape  observation  by  the  reader  of  this 
book  is  that  of  the  comparative  absence  of  exact  statistical  information 
disclosed  in  it  in  regard  to  Uruguay  in  comparison  with  that  which  appears 
relating  to  Argentina.  The  reason  of  this  is  that  while  the  latter  country 
has  now  had  many  decades  in  which  to  put  its  house  in  order,  the  latter 
is  still  so  busily  occupied  in  that  necessary  task  that  its  officials  have  as 
yet  had  little  time  to  devote  to  compiling  authoritative  statistics  of  a 
progress  of  which  it  must  not,  therefore,  be  inferred  that  they  and  their 
country  are  not  very  justly  proud. 

Thus  figures  which  are  easily  available  through  the  patriotic  ability 
and  industry  of  Dr.  Francisco  Latzina,  the  chief  of  the  National  Argentine 
Statistical  Department,  and  so  clearly  and  strikingly  digested  by  Senor 
Ricardo  Pillado,  the  Director  of  the  Division  of  Commerce  and  Industry 
in  the  Argentine  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  a  Ministry  the  scope  of  whose 
work  is  extremely  wide  and  all-important  in  the  Republic,  have  really 
yet  no  counterparts  in  Uruguay,  where  one  is  rather  left  to  guess  at  the 
general  effect  of  such  isolated  agricultural  trade  statistics  as  alone  are 
immediately  available.  Figures  are  to  be  had  by  the  private  courtesy 
of  individuals  connected  with  various  administrations,  and  these,  if  not 
exact,  are  no  doubt  approximately  so  ;  but  they  do  not  bear  the  stamp 
nor  the  proof  of  comparison  which  should  be  found  in  authoritative 
figures. 

The  author  knows  from  the  test  of  his  own  previous  experience 
that  such  few  figures  as  he  has  given  concerning  Uruguay  are  substantially 
correct,  and  must  therefore,  though  reluctantly,  ask  the  reader  to  take 
his  word  for  it  that  they  are  so. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  WAR 

ITS   PRESENT  AND   PROBABLE  FUTURE   EFFECTS  ON 
ARGENTINA  AND    URUGUAY 


A 


S  has  been  indicated  elsewhere  in  these  pages,  the 
shock  of  the  commencement  of  the  Great  War 
found  the  River  Plate  Republics  already  in  a 
condition  of  considerable  local  depression.  This  was  owing 
to  relatively  poor  harvests,  due  to  a  long  continuance  of 
exceptional  and  ill-timed  rains  ;  a  consequent  collapse  of 
land  speculation  and  the  usually  sinister  effects  of  slump 
after  a  long  period  of  boom  ;  and  the  condition  of  money 
markets,  for  some  time  past  disturbed  by  the  fear  of  the 
results  of  political  complications  in  the  Balkans. 

The  Governments  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay  must  be 
most  warmly  congratulated  on  the  vigour  and  promptitude 
with  which  they  faced  the  fact  that,  with  the  declaration  of 
war  in  Europe,  they  were  suddenly  left  to  their  own  re- 
sources to  an  extent  they  had  never  experienced  during  the 
few  decades  which  really  form  the  whole  period  of  their  true 
economic  history. 

Lucky  it  was  for  Argentina  that  such  a  veteran  statesman 
as  Dr.  Victorino  de  la  Plaza  occupied  the  Presidential  chair, 
and  that  he  had  the  aid  of  a  man  of  such  high  intelligence 
and  reputation  as  Dr.  Carbo  as  Minister  of  Finance  ;  fortu- 
nate also  for  Uruguay  in  having  Dr.  Viera  (since  elected 
President)  at  the  head  of  her  Ministry  of  Finance. 

Honour  is  also  due  to  the  Officials  of  the  State  Banks  of 
both  nations  and  to  the  private  Banks  and  financiers  who 

is 


THE  WAR  19 

lent  such  an  untiring  and  efficacious  aid  to  both  Govern- 
ments in  the  hour  of  pardonable  alarm  ;  alarm  which  was 
prevented  from  developing  into  panic  by  the  prompt  and 
statesmanlike  measures  adopted. 

Really,  as  Mr.  C.  A.  Tornquist  justly  observes  in  an  article 
cited  in  these  pages,  it  cannot  be  said  that  a  "  crisis  " 
exists  in  a  country  while  its  vital  forces  are  in  full  develop- 
ment. 

Still,  in  Argentina  and  Uruguay  these  forces  had  not  for 
some  time  been  in  full  operation,  from  causes  stated  above  ; 
and,  therefore,  panic  would  not  have  been  a  surprising  result 
from  alarm  falling  on  depression,  before  cool  reason  had  time 
to  assert  its  reassuring  influence. 

It  soon  did  so,  however,  thanks  to  the  virile  and  sound 
handling  of  the  situation  by  the  heads  of  Government  and 
Finance. 

Congresses  assembled  and  their  usually  heterogeneous 
political  elements  unanimously  and  swiftly  agreed  to  pass 
the  several  measures  of  economic  defence  placed  before 
them. 

During  seven  days'  Bank  Holiday  the  finance  of  both 
Republics  was  set  in  good  order ;  not  only  to  avoid  ill 
consequences  from  the  initial  and  any  likely  future  shocks, 
but  to  enable  the  countries  to  profit — as  there  can  now  be 
little  doubt  they  are  doing  and  will  do — from  the  political 
and  economic  disturbance  of  Europe. 

As  Sefior  Carlos  F.  Soares,  writing  in  La  N acton  (Buenos 
Aires)  under  date  January  ist,  1915,  said: — 

The  laws  and  financial  and  economic  measures  necessitated 
by  the  European  conflagration  have  proved  opportune  and 
eflficacious. 

Thanks  to  them,  danger  to  the  Credit  Houses  and  Institutions 
was  avoided  ;  Internal  and  Foreign  commercial  pressure  was 
lessened,  the  gold  stock  in  the  "  Caja  de  Conversion,"  which 
guarantees  the  value  of  the  paper  currency,  was  preserved  ; 
the  escape  of  gold  from  the  countr)^  was  avoided  ;  the  lack  of 
foreign  bills  of  exchange  was  compensated  for  by  deposits  of 


20  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

gold  at  the  various  Argentine  Legations  ;  shortage  of  coal  and 
dearness  of  wheat  and  flour  were  foreseen  ;  and,  finally,  means 
of  obtaining  its  value  were  assured  to  the  natural  wealth  of  the 
country. 

Only  one  Buenos  Aires  Bank  (of  comparatively  small  im- 
portance) failed  to  reopen  its  doors  after  the  seven  days' 
holiday  ;  a  failure  which  there  is  some  reason  to  believe 
was  by  no  means  entirely  due  to  the  War. 

Not  one  Bank  and  very  few  Commercial  Houses  availed 
themselves  of  the  Moratorium  ;  a  fact  which  is  highly 
creditable  to  the  Local  Banking  and  Commercial  community. 

The  arrangements  for  the  deposits  of  gold  at  the  Legations 
constitute  a  feature  novel  to  the  system  of  International 
Exchange. 

-  After  all  this  accomplished  in  so  short  a  space  of  time,  who 
will  continue  to  throw  the  reproach  of  "  Mariana  "  at  either 
Argentines  or  Uruguayans  ?  A  reproach  long  since  unjusti- 
fied by  the  attitude  of  the  inhabitants  of  either  of  the  River 
Plate  Republics  towards  any  matter  the  advantages  of  which 
they  grasp. 

No  European  Statesmen  and  Bankers  could  have  more 
promptly  realized  and  carried  out  the  necessary  measures 
for  the  economic  protection  of  their  country. 

The  present  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay  was  thus  assured. 
What  of  their  future  ? 

Prophecy,  which  is  generally  counted  as  hazardous, 
is  especially  so  when  it  is  about  to  be  printed,  and  may 
still  be  read  by  the  light  of  the  experience  of  several  years 
hence.  Still,  some  Commercial  and  Financial  angels  have 
not  feared  to  tread  the  ground  of  prophecy  as  to  the  im- 
mediate and  post-bellum  future  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay  ; 
and  not  only  has  competent  authority  not  feared  to  forecast 
results  in  this  regard,  but  there  is  a  remarkable  unanimity 
of  influential  opinion  as  to  the  probably  favourable  effects 
of  European  affairs  on  the  economy  of  the  River  Plate 
Republic.    Always  supposing,  as  there  seems  every  reason 


THE  WAR  21 

to  suppose,  that  these  Republics  continue  to  have  the 
commercial  and  common  sense  to  manage  their  internal 
affairs  in  such  manner  as  to  be  able  to  derive  the  greatest 
possible  pecuniary  benefits  from  the  troubles  of  European 
nations. 

One,  perhaps  the  chief,  in  his  courage  of  declaration  of 
these  prophetic  authorities  is  Mr.  C.  A.  Tomquist  ;  a  man 
having  very  large  financial  and  commercial  interests  on  the 
River  Plate  and  enjoying  a  very  high  local  reputation  for 
business  acumen  and  honour.  His  whole  life  has  been  spent 
in  the  higher  financial  circles  of  Argentina. 

Therefore  the  author  has  thought  well  to  cite  here  some 
portions  of  an  article  published  by  him  in  the  Argentine 
Press,  a  translation  of  which  appeared  in  The  Review  of  the 
River  Plate,  under  date  December  25th,  1914. 

In  this  article  Mr.  Tornquist  says  : — 

From  this  chaos  (that  of  the  European  War)  there  will  arise 
perhaps  an  Asiatic  country,  and,  quite  certainly,  some  American 
countries,  and  in  the  first  place  the  Argentine  Republic,  which, 
on  account  of  the  class  and  special  conditions  of  its  products,  is 
called  upon  to  benefit  from  the  situation  more  than  any  other 
country  in  the  world,  as  even  the  United  States  cannot  export 
in  any  quantity  the  noble  products  produced  by  Argentina  as 
they  require  them  for  home  consumption.  This  war  not  only 
does  not  create  difficulties  for  our  economic  development,  as 
will  happen  to  nearly  all  the  other  countries  in  the  world,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  it  will  stimulate  it,  and  for  this  reason,  the  longer 
the  war  lasts  the  more  our  national  economy  will  gain  at  the 
expense,  sad  as  it  is  to  say  it,  of  the  countries  now  at  war.  Whilst 
the  war  lasts  the  prices  of  the  majority  of  our  products  will  not 
decline,  for  many  of  the  countries  which  produce  the  same  goods 
as  we  do  are  at  war,  and  on  this  account  the  demand  is  bound 
to  increase.  The  first  effects  of  this  advantageous  situation 
will  bring  about  the  disappearance  of  what  we  call  here  "  crisis," 
but  which  is  nothing  more  than  a  "  commercial  indigestion," 
brought  about  by  excessive  speculation,  and  which  has  prin- 
cipally affected  speculators,  and  has  done  absolutely  no  harm 
to  pastoral  or  agricultural  industries,  which  are  our  j^rincipal 


22  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

sources  of  wealth.  ...  It  cannot  be  said  that  a  country  is  in 
"  crisis  "  when  its  vital  forces  are  in  full  development.  This 
does  not  mean,  nevertheless,  what  many  erroneously  think,  that 
if  the  next  crop  is  good  they  will  be  able  in  1915  to  sell  their 
lands  in  the  vicinity  of  cities  and  summer  resorts  and  speculative 
regions  at  the  prices  ruling  when  they  purchased  them.  Nothing 
of  this  will  occur,  and  only  the  value  of  revenue-producing 
property  will  normalize  itself,  and  will  be  placed  at  a  value 
corresponding  to  a  return  of  8  to  9  per  cent  per  annum.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  believe  that  several,  perhaps  many,  years  will 
pass  before  it  will  be  possible  to  liquidate  properties  which  do 
not  give  revenue  at  the  prices  which  their  owners  desire.  .  .  . 
A  favourable  factor  which  might  become  important,  perhaps  in 
the  not  distant  future,  is  the  immigration  of  the  "capitalist  " 
farmer  from  Belgium  and  other  European  countries,  who  prefer 
to  liquidate  their  affairs  there  and  come  to  Argentina  with  what 
remains  to  them,  and  so  get  away  from  the  taxes  which  of 
necessity  the  Government  of  the  conquering  or  conquered 
countries  must  impose  so  as  to  re-establish  their  finances.  It 
is  a  very  interesting  fact  for  ourselves  that  after  all  large  wars 
or  revolutions  in  Europe  in  modern  times  there  has  been  an 
enormous  increase  of  good  immigration  in  new  countries,  and 
especially  to  America,  from  which  the  United  States  has  been  the 
first  to  benefit,  because  in  that  epoch  the  future  of  South  America 
was  based  solely  on  the  gold  mines  of  Peru  and  the  coffee  and 
diamonds  of  Brazil,  whilst  the  Argentine  Republic  was  only 
known  by  its  "  sterile  Pampa  and  Patagonia,"  and  its  internal 
revolutions.  To-day  these  things  have  changed,  and  if  any 
country  is  to  interest  the  capitalist  immigrant  it  will  without 
doubt  in  the  first  place  be  the  Argentine  Republic,  because  it  is  in 
the  best  condition  to  receive  them,  especially  if  they  are  convinced 
that  the  value  of  property  is  not  inflated.  It  is  the  duty  of 
our  Government  to  make  all  this  known  to  future  immigrants 
by  means  of  serious  propaganda.  .  .  .  Then  we  shall  have  to 
struggle  against  the  lack  of  tonnage  for  exporting  our  crop,  but 
we  should  not  forget  that  whereas  to  export  with  regularity  is 
for  us  an  economic  question,  for  the  belligerent  countries,  pur- 
chasers of  our  produce,  the  matter  is  of  vital  importance,  as  it  is 
a  material  question  not  to  die  of  hunger,  and  of  indispensable 
necessity  to  be  able  to  carry  on  the  war,  so  that  those  countries 
are  even  more  interested  than  ourselves  that  we  should  be  able 
to  dispose  of  the  necessary  means  of  transport.     We  take  as 


THE  WAR  23 

our  basis  of  the  probable  assets  of  our  balance  of  payments  an 
exportation  to  the  value  of  $580,000,000  gold.  At  first  sight 
this  figure  appears  high,  but  let  us  analyse  it.  Our  record  of 
exports  was  in  1912-13  $513,500,000  gold,  of  which  $306,000,000 
corresponded  to  cereals  and  the  remainder  to  produce  not  affected 
by  locusts,  droughts,  rain  or  frost,  that  is  to  say,  the  crop  of  that 
year  represented  $306,000,000  gold  for  produce  exported,  and 
we  will  suppose  $104,000,000  remained  in  the  country,  making 
a  total  of  $410,000,000.  If  the  crop  of  this  year  should  be  25  per 
cent  less  than  our  "  record  "  crop  we  should  have  "  at  the  prices 
of  that  time  "  $307,000,000  as  the  value  of  the  harvest,  and 
there  would  remain,  deducting  what  the  country  requires  for 
consumption  and  seed,  over  $200,000,000  for  export.  But  the 
actual  prices  and  those  in  perspective  are  25  per  cent  higher 
than  the  others,  so  that  would  give  $250,000,000  for  exports 
of  cereals,  besides  which  there  are  the  other  products  (meat, 
wool,  hides,  tallow,  etc.),  which  then  represented  a  value  of 
$207,000,000  gold,  and  which  to-day  are  worth  20  per  cent  more, 
that  is  to  say,  $250,000,000  gold,  making  a  total  of  $500,000,000 
gold.  To  this  we  must  add  the  value  of  2,500,000  tons  of  maize, 
the  balance  of  last  year's  crop  which  remained  to  be  exported 
on  October  ist,  1914  ;  the  possible  value  of  the  export  of  horses  ; 
the  value  of  the  sugar  exported,  which  is  more  than  60,000  tons, 
and  which  will  probably  be  duplicated  ;  the  export  of  woven 
goods  (ponchos,  cloths,  etc.)  and  articles  of  saddlery  and  tanned 
goods  for  the  European  governments  ;  alcohol  and  other  pro- 
ducts of  lesser  importance,  which  come  under  the  heading  of 
extraordinary  exports.  It  would  not  therefore  be  at  all  extra- 
ordinary if  we  reached  $600,000,000  or  even  passed  that  figure, 
which  will  be  the  case  if  our  harvest  exceeds  our  estimate.  .  .  . 
If  the  crop  turned  out  to  be  a  "  bad  "  one^  (that  is  to  say,  that 
it  failed  in  certain  parts,  as  due  to  the  great  extension  of  area, 
it  is  not  possible  to-day  for  a  whole  crop  to  be  lost)  and  it  only 
results  in  50  per  cent  of  that  of  1912-13,  we  should  still  obtain 
a  total  value  of  $205,000,000,  and  there  would  remain  after 
deducting  the  necessities  for  home  requirements  $100,000,000 
gold  for  export,  calculated  on  prices  of  two  years  ago,  but  in 
this  case  the  prices  would  rise  much  more  than  25  per  cent,  and 
for  this  reason  the  consumption  of  cereals  in  the  country,  as  well 
as  imports  in  general,  would  show  such  a  marked  decrease,  that 

^  The  crop  has  been  a  good  one  as  regards  wheat.    As  regards  maize, 
it  is  uncertain  at  the  time  of  writing  owing  to  some  early  rains. 


24  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

the  favourable  superavit  in  the  balance  of  payments  would 
never  completely  disappear. 

I  take  as  my  starting-point  the  sum  of  $460,000,000  gold, 
made  up  as  follows  : — ^ 

{a)  Imports  $270,000,000  gold. 

(b)  Service  of  the  Public  Debt  payable  abroad  $50,000,000 
gold. 

(c)  Interest  on  Cedulas  and  on  capital  placed  by  foreign 
companies  on  mortgage  $31,000,000  gold. 

{d)  Interest  and  dividends  on  foreign  capital  in  railways 
$42,000,000  gold. 

(e)  Interest  and  dividends  on  other  foreign  capital 
$27,000,000  gold. 

(/)  Savings  of  immigrants  and  emigrants  $24,000,000  gold. 

(g)  Expenses  of  Argentines  abroad  $6,000,000  gold. 

The  sum  total  of  all  these  items  is  $460,000,000  gold,  so  that 
we  have 

$  Gold. 

Assets 580,000,000 

Liabihties 460,000,000 


Total  balance 120,000,000 

in  favour  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  a  sum  which  can  be  increased 
if  the  harvest  is  very  good  and  imports  are  less  than  I  estimated, 
and  decreased  if  the  harvest  is  bad  and  imports  greater  than 
$246,000,000  gold.  From  this  it  will  be  seen  that  if  my  calcula- 
tions are  confirmed  Argentina  will  receive  from  abroad  the  sum 
of  $120,000,000  gold  for  balance  of  accounts  for  the  commercial 
year  of  1914-15.  To  demonstrate  the  importance  of  this  fact 
I  will  mention  that  for  the  year  1913-14  the  balance  was 
$185,000,000  against  Argentina  ;  in  1912-13  it  was  $200,000,000 
in  contra,  and  in  1911-12  $202,000,000  in  contra,  so  that  com- 
pared with  the  three  previous  years  Argentina  will  have  a  differ- 
ence in  its  favour  in  the  balance  of  payments  of  $300,000,000  gold  ! 

What  do  these  figures  signify  ? 

$120,000,000  gold  is  equivalent  to  the  service  of  the  National 
Debt  for  two  and  a  half  years,  and  is  more  than  half  the  amount 
actually  deposited  in  bullion  in  the  Caja  de  Conversion.  It  also 
represents  the  half  of  all  that  the  country  owes  abroad  for  mort- 

1  In  the  case  of  each  of  these  items  Mr.  Tornquist  gives  the  facts  and 
reasons  on  which  his  calculation  has  been  based. 


THE  WAR  25 

gages.  On  the  other  hand,  $300,000,000  are  three-fourths  of 
all  our  national  external  debt,  are  two  annual  national  budgets, 
as  well  as  the  total  value  of  a  good  harvest.  Practically  speaking, 
it  results  that  the  Argentine  Republic  will  receive  with  these 
$120,000,000  gold  a  sum  which  exceeds  the  average  of  the  new 
foreign  capital  which  has  come  to  the  country  in  the  last  few 
years,  which  will  compensate  for  the  absence  of  capital  which 
formerly  came  to  the  country  seeking  investment,  and  will 
contribute  to  develop  the  economic  forces  of  the  country. 
Outside  of  this  $120,000,000  gold  it  is  logical  to  imagine  that 
some  capital  will  come,  as  some  railways  and  other  foreign 
companies  have  recently  made  issues  abroad  and  others  will 
place  their  profits  here.  There  are  also  the  various  financial 
operations  of  the  National  and  Provincial  Governments  and  the 
Municipality  of  the  capital  for  the  pa3aTiient  of  debt  services  or 
to  consolidate  the  floating  debt,  for  although  money  does  not 
come  to  the  country  this  will  diminish  by  these  operations  the 
emigration  of  capital  in  respect  of  items  b,  d  and  e  of  the 
balance  of  payments,  that  is  to  say,  the  dividends  and  interest 
on  foreign  capital  placed  in  commercial  enterprises  and  railways, 
and  thus  also  the  service  of  the  external  debt,  which  otherwise 
would  have  to  be  remitted  and  all  of  which  I  have  not  taken  into 
account.  Besides,  where  will  Europeans  place  their  savings  ? 
In  European  bonds  which  continue  to  depreciate  on  account  of 
the  issue  which  will  have  to  be  made  for  the  war  debt  and  to 
consolidate  the  monetary  situation  ?  Assuredly  more  money 
will  come  here  than  many  believe  in  search  of  investment.  The 
United  States  with  its  new  monetary  law  does  not  require  as 
much  as  before.  To  Brazil  and  Chile  it  will  not  go  for  some  time, 
neither  to  Mexico  or  the  Balkans. 

An  interesting  point  is  the  manner  in  which  these  $120,000,000 
will  come  into  the  country. 

It  should  come  in  the  form  of  Argentine  bonds  ("  Cedulas  " 
principally),  and  in  coined  gold  all  that  is  not  employed  to  cover 
debts  payable  to  our  commerce  and  industry  to  European  banks 
and  manufacturers,  which  sums  cannot  be  very  considerable, 
although  it  is  dilficult  to  fix  them.  .  .  ,  The  reaction  will  bring 
about  the  investment  of  savings  in  Argentine  revenue-producing 
bonds  instead  of  in  purchases  of  land  on  monthly  payments  ; 
it  will  bring  about  a  reduction  in  interest  and  as  a  consequence 
of  this  an  abundance  of  money  which  will  stubbornly  withstand 
speculation  in  land.    The  movement  of  the  Stock  Exchange  will 


26  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

reawaken — it  has  been  dead  since  1906 — and  there  will  be  money 
for  mortgages  and  business,  replacing  that  which  came  from 
abroad  and  which  has  to  be  repaid.  All  of  this  will  bring  in  time 
an  immigration  of  Cedulas  of  our  external  debt  bonds  and  of 
railway  and  industrial  shares.  What  will  probably  not  take 
place  for  several  years,  perhaps  for  many,  is  what  I  mentioned 
at  the  commencement,  namely,  that  land  and  other  objects  of 
speculation  which  do  not  produce  anything  will  rise  to  prices 
which  their  owners  dream  about  and  pretend  to  obtain,  as 
neither  banks  nor  capitalists  will  invest  their  money  in  such 
objects,  neither  will  they  stimulate  speculation,  all  of  which  are 
circumstances  which  will  contribute  to  develop  the  economic 
forces  of  the  country  and  to  foment  its  industries  and  its  com- 
merce until  there  arrives  for  the  Argentine  Republic  the  psycho- 
logical moment  of  being  able  to  produce  all  that  it  consumes, 
that  is  to  say,  become  self-supporting,  without  having  to  fall 
back  on  European  industry,  a  situation  at  which  the  United 
States  of  North  America  have  arrived  after  great  efforts. 

Remains  only  to  be  added  that  Mr.  Tornquist  appears  to 
have  omitted  consideration  of  the  possibility  of  money 
being  withdrawn  from  South  America  by  European  investors, 
not  on  account  of  any  lack  of  confidence,  but  simply  because 
such  investors  may  under  existing  conditions  have  actual 
need  of  all  the  pecuniary  resources  they  are  able  to  realize. 

For  the  getting  in  of  the  1914-15  harvests  there 
has  been  sufficient  labour  available ;  because  of  the 
stoppage  of  much  municipal  and  building  work,  on  account 
of  retrenchment  rendered  necessary  by  the  situation.  But 
for  the  future,  if,  indeed,  they  are  to  occupy  the  prominent 
place  in  the  world's  economy  for  which  Nature  appears  to 
have  destined  them,  the  River  Plate  Republics  will  have  to 
increase  their  agricultural  populations  greatly  and  speedily. 

The  need  of  this  is  now  fully  realized  in  both  countries, 
but,  strange  to  say,  it  is  in  Uruguay  where  there  are  no 
fiscal  lands  that  proposals  for  probably  useful  legislation  to 
this  end  have  attained  the  greater  maturity.  It  is  there 
proposed,  in  effect,  that  the  Government  should  purchase, 
at  least  portions  of,  the  present  holdings  of  the  large  land- 


THE  WAR  27 

owners  and  colonize  the  land  so  purchased  on  systems 
similar  to  that  obtaining  in,  for  instance,  Canada. 

Argentina  still  has  large  tracts  of  fiscal  land,  but  no  doubt 
her  large  landowners  will  also  aid  towards  the  colonization 
by  granting  to  colonists  greater  fixity  of  tenure  and  greater 
facilities  for  mixed  farming  than  the  latter  have  been 
hitherto  able  to  obtain. 

With  regard  to  Belgian  emigration  to  the  River  Plate,  the 
fact  which  cannot  be  lost  sight  of  is  that  the  Belgian,  especially 
the  Fleming,  is  a  person  deeply  attached  to  his  own  land  and 
his  own  ways  of  living.  It  seems  certain  that  if  Belgians  of  the 
agricultural  class  are  to  be  colonized  in  South  America,  such 
colonization  will  have  to  be  effected  by  means  of  settlements 
like  those  of  the  Welsh  colony  in  Chubut  and  the  Swiss 
colony  in  Colonia. 

A  Flemish  family  would  view  with  vehement  disgust  the 
ramshackle  home  of  an  Argentine  or  Uruguayan  chacrero 
(small  farmer);  a  disgust  which,  communicated  to  their  friends 
in  Europe,  would  effectually  stop  further  Belgian  immigration. 

The  Belgian  is  a  good  worker,  but  he  is  much  more 
"  insular  "  than  the  British  in  his  scorn  of  ways  of  living 
which  differ  from  his  own.  He  is  not  adaptable  enough,  in 
any  way,  to  be  put  to  live  or  work  among  the  composite 
Spanish-Italian-American  rural  classes  of  the  River  Plate. 

Probably  both  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  will  continue  to 
work  out  his  own  salvation  in  this  vital  matter  of  attracting 
agricultural  colonists  to  his  land.  Already  the  spirit  of 
democratic  unrest  menaces  privilege  in  Argentina,  privilege 
which  has  already  been  destroyed  in  Uruguay.  And  the 
greatest  pohtical  danger  which  now  seems  to  threaten 
Argentina  and  has  for  some  time  past  been  the  bane  of 
Uruguay  is  doctrinairism  ;  a  tendency  to  pursue  to  most 
unpractically  illogical  consequences  theories  which  seem  to 
their  initiators  and  supporters  to  be  destined  to  cure  all  the 
social  and  economic  ills  to  which  man  is  prone. 

State  socialism  from  high  places  in  Uruguay  and  socialism 


28  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  all  kinds  and  varieties  from  lower  social  spheres  in  Argen- 
tina are  each  set  on  the  adoption  of  its  own  empiric  policy. 

Like  all  young  things,  these  Republics  must  pick  them- 
selves up  again  when  they  fall  (and,  in  truth,  they  display 
great  capability  for  doing  so),  but  it  would  be  well  if,  just  at 
the  present  moment,  they  were  to  adopt  and  fully  carry  out 
some  provedly  sound  colonizing  policy.  Afterwards  they 
might  experiment  with  single-tax,  rural  Banks,  state  owner- 
ship of  land  and  all  upon  and  within  it,  as  much  as  they 
might  find  themselves  able  to  afford  to  do. 

Meanwhile  they  must  work  patiently,  in  unadventurous 
fashion,  towards  the  most  soundly  rapid  possible  develop- 
ment of  their  rich  natural  resources. 

During  1915,  all  extension  of  activity  was  at  a  standstill 
in  both  Republics.  Little  or  no  land  changed  hands, 
unless  under  practically  forced  sale  ;  city  improvements 
and  private  building  projects  were  stayed,  and  no  new  railway 
extensions  were  put  under  construction.  ^ 

A  few  good  harvests 2  will  put  these  things  as  they  were  ; 
but  the  lesson  of  the  War  will  have  been  lost  for  Argentina 
and  Uruguay  if  they  do  not  see  to  the  matter  of  the  extension 
of  their  agricultural  industries. 

It  seems,  however,  that  they  now  are  solidly  determined 
to  do  so  ;  and  that,  far  from  the  lesson  of  recent  events  being 
lost  for  them,  the  finding  of  themselves  cast  on  their  own 
resources  has  led  to  a  most  beneficial  and  self-sacrificing 
examination  of  what  those  resources  are  in  contrast  with 
what  they  so  easily  might  be. 

The  real  vitality  of  these  countries  can  be  measured  by  the 
fact  that  the  prices  of  their  National  Securities,  which  fell 
with  the  world-wide  shock  of  July-August,  1914,  were  by 
the  following  September  already  on  the  high  road  to  the 
practically  complete  recovery  they  have  now  attained. 

1  With  the  commencement  of  191 6,  however,  capital  is  flowing  into 
both  countries  from  the  United  States  for  both  public  works  and  private 
enterprise. 

^  The  1915-16  harvests  are  reported  excellent. 


CHAPTER   III 
HISTORY   AND   POLITICS 

THE  political  history  of  the  River  Plate  Republics 
begins  with  the  wars  which  made  possible  the  great 
Declaration  of  Independence  from  the  dominion  of 
Spain  on  the  25th  of  May,  1810.  Their  most  romantic 
history  is  that  of  those  wars  and  that  of  the  old  Colonial 
days  immediately  preceding  them.  As,  however,  the  only 
slight  pretension  of  the  present  book  is  to  be  informative 
on  matters  of  fact,  romance  must  wait  on,  perchance,  the 
author's  more  leisured  moments  and  some  outline  be  pre- 
sented now  of  the  events  which  had  most  influence  in 
making  Argentina  and  Uruguay  what  they  are  to-day. 

Having  overthrown  the  rule  of  Spain  the  former  River 
Plate  colonies  became  involved  in  a  long  internecine  struggle 
for  supremacy  of  power.  For  fifty  years  the  United  States 
of  the  River  Plate  were  most  disunited  by  local  jealousies 
and  the  rural  districts  were  only  usually  unanimous  in  their 
refusal  to  submit  to  the  Government  at  Buenos  Aires,  com- 
posed of  men  who,  as  the  rural  populations  said  with  a  great 
amount  of  truth,  were  endeavouring  to  rule  even  more 
despotically  than  did  the  Viceroys  and  by  purely  Viceregal 
methods.  Were  that  submitted  to,  the  revolution  would 
have  been  in  vain  as  far  as  concerned  the  substitution  of 
democratic  principles  for  those  of  tyranny.  This  was  no 
doubt  true,  for  the  politicians  of  Buenos  Aires  neither  knew, 
nor  had  had  any  opportunity  of  knowing,  methods  of 
Government  other  than  those  under  which  they  themselves 
had  been  brought  up.    Had  they  known  it,  though  it  is  only 

29 


30  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

just  to  them  to  say  that  they  did  not  in  the  least  reahze 
the  fact,  rule  under  them  in  the  way  they  proposed  to  rule, 
would  have  been  merely  an  exchange  of  King  Stork  for  King 
Log.  The  country  was,  however,  quick  to  grasp  the  menace, 
and  it  is  only  very  regrettable  that  rivalry  between  its 
several  contemporary  would-be  saviours  produced  so  long 
a  continuance  of  political  chaos,  during  which  newly  ac- 
quired Liberty  and  Independence  had  no  chance  to  develop 
the  vast  natural  resources  which  had  lain  idle  in  consequence 
of  the  Spanish  policy  of  squeezing  the  life  out  of  the  goose 
which  would  otherwise  have  laid  so  many  golden  eggs  for 
Spain.  In  consequence  of  civil  war  it  was,  as  has  been  in- 
dicated, not  much  before  i860  that  it  began  to  lay  any 
appreciable  number  of  such  eggs  for  itself  or  anyone  else. 
It  only  began  to  do  so  under  two  tyrants :  Rozas  in  the 
South  and  Artigas  in  the  North.  Both  were  strong  men 
and  patriots ;  and  both  held  power,  in  spite  of  opposition 
both  open  and  treacherous,  for,  as  later  history  has  shown, 
the  good  of  the  respective  territories  they  had  brought 
under  their  sway.  Harsh  as  were  their  methods,  these  were 
suited  to  lawless  times.  Of  each  of  them  it  has  been  said 
that  he  permitted  no  thief  but  himself  to  live. 

As  a  fact  neither  were  thieves  nor  sought  nor  attained 
overmuch  wealth  for  themselves.  Both,  however,  forestalled 
otherwise  inevitable  assassination  by  giving  their  enemies 
no  shrift  at  all ;  once  these  had  been  ascertained.  And  both 
succeeded  in  establishing  police  systems  throughout  their 
territories  which  would  rival  the  European  secret  services 
of  to-day. 

Nothing  went  on  unknown  to  them  ;  from  short-lived 
conspiracies  to  petty  thefts.  And  the  punishment  for  each 
offence  inflicted  by  them  was  swift  and  closely  fitted  to  the 
crime. 

No  one  has  yet  attempted  a  complete  whitewashing  of 
Rozas  ;  though,  in  every  political  crisis  in  which  the  Govern- 
ment has  shown  any  apparent  weakness,  old  men  have 


HISTORY  AND  POLITICS  31 

sighed  for  his  reincarnation.  Artigas,  on  the  other  hand, 
whose  memory  not  so  long  ago  rivalled  those  of  the  most 
traditionally  cruel  old-world  potentates,  is  now  become  the 
Saviour  and  National  hero  of  Uruguay.  The  apostle  of  the 
democratic  principle. 

Truth  about  his  personahty  probably  lies  somewhere 
between  these  two  views,  but  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  he 
and  Rozas  were  men  needed  for  and  suited  to  their  times. 
Fearless  and  far-sighted,  they  made  order  out  of  chaos,  and 
individually  cruel  as  may  have  been  many  of  their  acts,  it 
was  their  iron  rule  which  laid  the  foundations  of  the  ad- 
mirable constitutions  of  what  are  now  the  separate  Republics 
of  Argentina  and  Uruguay.  Rozas  really  founded  the 
Argentine  Republic  as  much  as  Artigas  did  the  "  Banda 
Oriental,"  part  of  which  is  now  Uruguay.  But  the  period 
of  strife  which  succeeded  the  Declaration  of  the  Independence 
of  the  whole  of  the  River  Plate  Territories  had  lasted  just 
over  half  a  century  when  General  Mitre  was  chosen  as  the 
first  President  of  a  United  Federal  Argentina. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Sarmiento,  who  did  much  to  develop 
agriculture  and  was  the  great  pioneer  of  education.  Sar- 
miento had  been  a  political  exile  in  Europe,  where  he  learned 
much ;  and,  being  a  man  of  exceptional  intellect,  stored  up 
his  acquired  knowledge  and  enlightenment  for  his  country's 
subsequent  great  good. 

Since  the  first  Presidency  of  General  Mitre  there  has  only 
been  one  political  revolution  which  affected  the  whole  of 
Argentina,  the  one  which  in  1890  ousted  President  Juarez 
Celman  and  was  immediately  succeeded  by  the  financial 
crisis  with  which  the  name  of  Baring  is  chiefly  associated  in 
the  European  mind. 

Both  that  revolution  and  the  crisis  were  the  natural  out- 
come of  a  disease  which  would  have  completely  ruined  any 
country  less  rich  in  natural  resources  than  Argentina,  That 
disease  was  complete  political  and  financial  corruption  ; 
which  then  came  to  a  head  and  necessitated  drastic  operation. 


32  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Since  then  the  Argentine  nation  has  advanced  in  pohtical 
and  financial  health  with  extraordinary  and  unparalleled 
rapidity. 

The  history  of  Uruguay  has  run  on  different  lines  since 
she  emerged  from  the  older  Banda  Oriental.  She  has  been 
the  almost  constant  victim,  until  very  recent  years,  of  the 
fervent  patriotism  of  her  rural  population  ;  in  rebellion, 
often  with  much  apparent  justice,  against  what  it  has  from 
time  to  time  considered  to  be  the  prejudicial  doctrinarianism 
of  the  town-bred  men  who  have  directed  her  Government  in 
Montevideo.  In  any  case  the  rural  population  has  always 
been  in  a  more  or  less  declared  state  of  rebellion  against 
the  Government.  For  many  years  the  "  White  "  party 
was  in  power  and  the  "  Red "  in  revolution.  Now  for 
a  long  period  the  "  Reds  "  have  kept  place  and  nominal 
power,  from  which  until  comparatively  very  recently  the 
"  Whites  "  have  never  ceased  to  endeavour  to  oust  them. 

Let  it  not,  however,  be  thought  that  either  the  retention 
of  power  by  one  party  or  its  attempted  overthrow  by  the 
other  has  in  Uruguay  been  due  to  personal  ambition  or 
corrupt  greed  on  either  side  ;  as  has  been,  unfortunately  but 
very  frequently,  the  case  in  other  South  American  Republics. 
To  think  this  would  be  to  do  a  cruel  injustice  to  the  national 
character,  the  leading  characteristics  of  which  are  upright- 
ness and  honesty  in  thought  or  deed.  No  Uruguayan  would 
ever  have  rebelled  had  he  not  thought  that  the  policy  of  the 
existing  Government  was  gravely  prejudicial  to  the  vital 
interests  of  his  country,  nor  would  an  Uruguayan  statesman 
have  ever  clung  to  power  unless  he  had  been  conscientiously 
convinced  that  the  policy  of  his  party  was  the  only  true 
way  to  that  country's  best  development  and  prosperity. 

This  may  seem  to  many  readers  as  yet  but  little  acquainted 
with  Uruguayan  political  and  commercial  History  as  the 
mere  expression  of  an  enthusiasm  for  the  Uruguayan  char- 
acter on  the  part  of  the  present  writer.  But  a  closer  examina- 
tion of  that  History  than  is  within  the  scope  of  the  present 


HISTORY  AND  POLITICS  33 

work  will  show  the  views  just  above  expressed  to  be  nothing 
more  than  a  statement  of  cold  fact.  In  part  proof  of  which 
stands  the  total  absence  from  Uruguayan  Financial  History 
of  any  repudiation  or  avoidance  of  the  National  indebtedness. 
Long  periods  of  Agricultural  paralysis,  often  almost  total 
(in  a  land  which  depends  exclusively  on  agricultural  pro- 
ducts) ,  due  to  civil  strife  and  all  the  heavy  outlay  consequent 
on  such  wars,  have  never  led  Uruguay  to  depart  from  the 
strictly  gold  basis  of  her  monetary  system.  Her  paper  dollar 
has  always  retained  its  full  face  value  as  a  token  and  remains 
the  best  dollar  on  the  exchange  markets  of  the  world.  And 
the  world-wide  credit  of  private  Uruguayan  firms  stands  high 
above  that  of  similar  firms  in  other,  even  the  most  prosperous 
South  American  Republics.  This  is  due,  and  due  only,  to 
the  very  high  standard  of  political  and  commercial  morality 
obtaining,  and  which  has  always  obtained,  in  Uruguay. 

Now,  there  is  good  ground  for  the  hope  that  the  country 
is  persuaded  that  the  best  way  to  attain  the  greatest  possible 
general  prosperity  is  to  beat  the  sword,  once  and  for  ever, 
into  a  ploughshare.  At  the  same  time  it  cannot  be  hidden 
that  "  State  Socialism  gone  mad  "  (to  quote  an  Uruguayan 
description  of  the  policy  introduced  and  pursued  by  Sefior 
Batlle  y  Ordonez^)  strained  the  patience  of  the  rural  popu- 
lation and  that  of  a  goodly  proportion  of  Montevideans  as 
well,  to  a  degree  which  was  perilously  near  to  breaking  point. 
He  wished,  not  only  to  improve  all  conditions  of  his  country, 
but  to  make  Uruguay  an  object-lesson  in  State  Socialism  to 
the  world.  His  political  enemies,  or  rather  opponents,  say 
that,  while  he  has  read  the  works  of  Henry  George,  in  some 
confused  translation  or  other,  neither  his  education  nor  his 
acquaintance  with  such  subjects  fits  him  to  judge  of  even  the 
works  of  a  now  somewhat  discredited  political  economist  ; 
also  that  he,  the  ex-President,  is  a  potentially  dangerous 
lunatic.    But  note  that  no  one,  even  those  who  feared  most 

*  Who  concluded  his  term  of  office  as  President  of  the  Republic  in 
March,  191 5. 


34  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

from  his  persistent  political  and  financial  adventures,  have 
ever  even  so  much  as  hinted  that  his  policy  was  dictated  by 
other  than  quite  honestly  intentioned  conviction.  Uru- 
guayans are  seldom  corrupt  and  seldom  suspect  venality  in 
their  fellow-countrymen. 

Modern  Argentina  history  commences  with  the  renaissance 
of  the  country  immediately  after  the  upheaval  of  1891,  and 
that  of  Uruguay  a  much  less  number  of  years  ago.  Till  these 
periods,  political  unrest  was  a  constant  factor  in  both  coun- 
tries. Now,  a  National  revolution  has  become  a  thing  un- 
thinkable in  Argentina  ;  while  it  grows  every  day  less  Hkely 
for  responsible  or  influential  men  in  Uruguay  to  instigate  or 
encourage  aught  that  might  impede  her  triumphal  march  to 
rivalry  with  the  prosperity  of  the  great  sister  Republic  on 
the  Southern  bank  of  the  River  Plate. 

The  recent  death  of  Dr.  Saenz  Pefia,  an  Argentine  Presi- 
dent whose  high  personal  character  and  statesmanlike  rule 
fully  entitled  him  to  the  respect  he  received  from  all  parties 
and  classes  throughout  the  Republic,  is  a  serious  loss  to  his 
country.  Fortunately,  however,  the  Presidential  office  is 
now  held  by  Dr.  Victorino  de  la  Plaza,  formerly  Vice- 
President,  a  man  of  acknowledged  soundness  of  judgment 
and  tact  and  of  very  many  years'  experience  in  Ministerial, 
Diplomatic  and  Parliamentary  life. 

As  for  Uruguay,  her  chief  reliance  must  be  on  the  deep 
patriotism  of  her  leading  men  and  on  their  good  sense  to 
keep  a  peace  which  is  the  only  true  road  to  the  general 
prosperity  of  a  country  the  rich  natural  endowments  of 
which  cannot  develop  if  men  and  horses  are  taken  from  the 
plough,  as  they  constantly  were  in  the  past  by  one  party 
or  the  other,  to  partake  in  the  mutual  destruction  of  civil 
war. 

As  is  insisted  on  very  often  in  these  pages,  the  chief 
need  of  these  new  countries  is  population  ;  an  end  most 
surely  defeated  by  conditions  which  not  only  repelled  all 
immigration  but  killed  off  a  large  proportion  of  the  men 


HISTORY  AND  POLITICS  35 

already  there.  There  is  good  reason  to  beheve  that  all  this 
and  more  is  now  fully  appreciated  by  every  responsible  man 
in  Uruguay  ;  and,  once  convinced  of  the  right  course  to  be 
followed  for  the  country's  good,  there  is  not  a  Uruguayan 
who  will  not  follow  it  with  all  the  patriotic  doggedness 
which  formerly  caused  the  lamentable  continuance  of  civil 
war. 

Both  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  financial  policies  and 
methods  are  now  sound.  Argentina  is  prosperous  with 
great  future  increase  of  prosperity  before  her,  and  Uruguay 
is  now  well  on  the  high  road  to  similar  prosperity  and  as 
brilliant  a  future.  Both  are  at  peace  with  one  another  and 
their  neighbouring  Republics  ;  all  of  whom  are  much  too 
busy  with  their  own  interests  and  too  democratic  in  spirit 
to  dream  of  aggressive  war.  Added  to  which  only  Uruguay 
and  Paraguay  are  small  enough  to  need  ever  to  covet  further 
territory. 

Brazil  does  not :  Argentina  has  more  than  once  already 
in  the  past  refused  to  take  Uruguay  into  her  Federation  : 
Paraguay,  except  as  a  constant  nuisance  to  herself  and 
everyone  near  her,  is,  and  will  be  for  many  years  to  come,  a 
negligible  quantity  in  South  American  politics.  The  Andine 
frontier  now  fixed  between  Chile  and  Argentine  is  never 
again  likely  to  be  disturbed  by  either.  Uruguay  may 
possibly  cast  longing  eyes  one  day  at  the  rich  grazing  lands 
of  Southern  Brazil ;  but  she  is  more  than  unlikely  ever  to 
attempt  to  acquire  these  by  force.  Their  annexation  by  her 
could  only  occur  on  the  initiative  of  the  inhabitants  of  those 
regions  ;  who,  unless  Brazil  is  able  in  the  future  to  keep  her 
financial  and  fiscal  house  in  better  order  than  at  present, 
might  very  conceivably  prefer  to  be  under  the  Government 
of  Montevideo  rather  than  that  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.  Even  then, 
the  question  of  dift'erent  languages  would  present  a  difficulty 
to  the  assimilation  of  the  State  of  Rio  Grande  del  Sul  by  its 
Southern  neighbour. 

One  great  step  in  the  democratic  progress  of  the  Argentine 


36  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Republic  was  made  three  years  ago  on  the  initiative  of  Dr. 
Roque  Saenz  Peha.  This  was  the  passing  of  a  law  which 
introduced  the  ballot  and  made  the  exercise  of  the  franchise 
obligatory  on  a  universal  male  suffrage  of  native-born 
Argentines  and  foreigners  of  two  years'  residence. 

It  was  a  great  reform  made  necessary  by  many  considera- 
tions. The  chief  of  which  were  the  public  indifference  to  all 
matters  political  which  did  not  immediately  concern  In- 
dustry or  Commerce  and  the  profound  discredit  into  which 
elections,  parliamentary  and  municipal,  had  fallen  as  a 
consequence  of  that  indifference ;  the  whole  effect  of 
which  was  to  leave  the  internal  government  of  the 
country  entirely  in  the  hands  of  a  mostly  mercenary  caste 
of  professional  politicians.  This  caste  was  habitually 
guilty  of  electoral  corruption  and  malpractices  which,  in  the 
absence  of  any  interested  public  opinion,  continued  to  work 
in  a  vicious  circle  by  causing  complete  abstention  from  any 
exercise  of  the  vote  on  the  part  of  all  citizens  of  the  Republic 
except  those  forming  the  small  gangs  which  were  under  the 
orders  of  the  "  Caudillo  "  or  political  manager  of  each 
district.  These  gangs  went  to  the  poll,  at  so  much  per  head 
in  cash  and  many  illicit  privileges,  in  order  that  there 
should  be  any  voting  at  all  to  declare  the  due  re-election  of 
the  men  who  wielded  the  political  power  in  the  National  or 
Provincial  Legislatures  or  in  the  Councils  of  the  various 
Municipalities. 

The  substitution,  under  the  new  Law,  of  genuine  for 
fictitious  elections  has  also  operated  as  another,  and,  prob- 
ably, final  blow  struck  at  the  Provincial  OHgarchies,  reference 
to  which  has  been  made  in  another  chapter. 

No  one  outside  South  America  would  really  credit  the 
depths  of  corrupt  absurdity  in  which  elections  in  Argentina 
were  permitted  to  remain  so  late  in  these  days  of  her  general 
enlightenment  and  prosperity.  That  reform  in  this  highly 
important  respect  was  so  long  a-coming  was  due  to  individual 
preoccupation  with  their  own  affairs  of  the  people  of  a 


HISTORY  AND  POLITICS  37 

country  the  material  development  of  which  was  being 
accomplished  with  bewildering  rapidity. 

Men  had  no  time  to  occupy  themselves  with  such  a  tough, 
and  rather  dangerous,  job  as  the  dethronement  of  the  pro- 
fessional politician  ;  who,  in  the  higher  spheres  of  Pro- 
vincial Government,  usually  belonged  to  one  of  the  widely 
influential  groups  of  the  historically  dominant  native 
families.  Public  morality  had  sunk  to  a  strangely  low  level 
in  comparison  with  the  ever-increasing  commercial  rectitude 
of  the  country,  when  the  most  startling  tale  of  electoral 
fraud  or  administrative  corruption  would  be  received  with 
only  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders  and  an  indulgent  smile,  as  of 
wonder  why  the  narrator  was  making  so  much  ado  about 
such  a  very  ordinary  occurrence. 

The  management  of  elections  in  the  Federal  Capital  and 
in  the  Provinces  differed  only  in  method  ;  the  results  were 
uniform  triumphs  for  the  party  in  power.  In  the  Capital 
the  authorities  went  to  the  trouble  of  collecting  the  certi- 
ficates of  citizenship  (the  deposit  of  which  at  the  polling 
booths  was  the  form  of  voting  under  the  old  system)  of  dead 
and  absent  men  and  sometimes  of  hiring  others,  and  with 
filling  in  blank  forms  of  these  with  fictitious  names,  in 
sufhcient  quantities  to  swamp  any  attempted  voting  by  an 
opposition.  In  the  Provinces,  the  elections  were  always 
stage-managed  by  the  district  commissary  of  Police.  He 
led  up  the  necessary  gang  of  peon  voters,  to  whom  he  served 
out  a  dinner  of  came  con  cuero,  wine  and  a  $5  bill  each, 
to  celebrate  the  occasion  and  to  indemnify  them  for  any 
trouble  they  might  have  been  put  to  by  their  attendance. 
Furthermore,  the  faithful  electors  knew  that  in  the  case  of 
their  getting  into  any  scrape  in  the  future  which  might 
otherwise  cause  trouble  between  themselves  and  the  police, 
they  would  stand  every  possible  chance  of  dismissal  with  a 
friendly  caution  ;  while  were  the  case  one  of  assaulting  an 
enemy  that  enemy  would  stand  a  better  chance  of  imprison- 
ment than  they.    These  arc  not  traveller's  talcs,  but  facts 


38  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

well  known  to  every  resident  in  Argentina  and,  I  suspect, 
similar  facts  are  within  the  experience  of  everyone  living  in 
one  or  other  of  most  of  the  Latin  American  Republics.  So 
that  the  quantity  of  ink  spilt  in  the  European  papers  over 
the  accusations  brought  against  ex-President  Huerta,  to 
the  effect  that  he  had  improperly  influenced  the  late  Mexican 
Presidential  Election,  reads  comically  to  most  South 
Americans. 

Now,  in  Argentina,  all  qualified  persons  must  vote,  or  be 
mulcted  in  a  penalty  for  not  so  doing.  And  it  must  be  your 
own  fault  if  anyone  else  knows  which  way  you  have  voted. 
Even  the  innate  native  conviction  that  elections  are  rites 
instituted  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  already  elect  must 
have  suffered  severe  shock  from  Dr.  Saenz  Pefia's  Law.  It 
will  now  be  difficult  to  obtain  a  price  for  a  mere  promise  the 
fulfilment  or  otherwise  of  which  cannot  be  ascertained  by 
the  purchaser. 

The  passing  of  the  new  Law  really  seems  a  miracle  when 
its  interference  with  long-established  custom  is  considered. 
It  has  perhaps  crowned  the  patrician  caste  with  the  glory  of 
heroically  complete  self-sacrifice.  Certainly  it  heralds  the 
twilight  of  the  gods  who  have  guided  the  country's  destinies 
since  their  ancestors  led  its  rough  armies  to  victory  under 
the  autumnal  sun  of  May,  1810  (the  sun  which  is  blazoned 
in  gold  on  the  blue  and  white  of  the  National  banner),  who 
fought  for  or  opposed  Rozas  and  Artigas  and  upheld  the 
National  prestige  in  the  wearisome  conflict  with  Paraguay. 

In  the  old  days  of  musket  or  rifle  and  bandolier,  the 
Argentine  patricians  freely  gave  their  lives  and  fortunes  for 
the  PATRiA.  Now  in  frock-coats  and  silk  hats,  they  have 
given  up  for  her  the  right  to  all  power  not  derived  from 
individual  merit  or  capacity.  In  doing  so  they  have  made 
an  offering  to  democratic  Liberty  greater  by  far  than  any 
attained  during  the  sixty  years  of  Rebellion  and  Civil  War 
which  began  with  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  immediate  results  of  this  unchaining  of  the  power  of 


HISTORY  AND  POLITICS  39 

a  proletariat  which  has  not  yet  attained  a  very  high  educa- 
tional or  intellectual  level  will  nevertheless  be  watched  with 
interest  not  unmingled  with  anxiety  by  all  concerned  with 
political  economy  in  the  abstract  and  the  progress  and  peace- 
ful welfare  of  Argentina  in  particular. 

In  this  connection  it  is  perhaps  remarkable  that  whereas 
the  choice  of  each  New  President  has  for  many  years  been  a 
foregone  conclusion  during  at  least  the  last  year  or  so  of  his 
predecessor's  term  of  ofhce,  no  such  lengthy  period  of  pre- 
destination was  anywhere  observable  in  the  case  of  the 
successor  to  Dr.  Victorino  de  la  Plaza,  who  vacates  the 
Presidential  chair  this  year. 


CHAPTER  IV 
RACIAL  ELEMENTS   AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

WHAT  v/ill  be  the  result  some  generations  hence 
of  the  enormous  influx  of  immigration  from  all 
parts  of  Europe  to  Argentina  and  in,  as  yet,  a 
much  less  degree  to  Uruguay  ?  What  manner  of  man  will 
the  Argentine  of  the  future  be  when  he  has  completed  his 
development  as  a  national  type  ?  This  is  a  question  often 
asked,  but  as  to  which  only  the  most  shadowy  answer  can 
yet  be  given.  The  elements  which  are  going  to  his  formation 
are  so  many  and  the  quaHties  of  those  elements  so  difficult 
to  reckon  in  regard  to  their  respectively  possible  likelihood 
of  survival  in  the  settled  type.  The  most  that  can  be  done 
here  is  to  enumerate  the  chief  of  such  elements  in  their 
approximate  quantitative  values. 

The  true  Argentine  of  the  past  is  the  descendant  of  the 
Spanish  conquerors  with  usually  some  admixture  of  native 
Indian  blood  derived  from  a  remote  ancestress,  while  another 
less  remote  has  perhaps  given  him  a  tinge  of  black  blood  in 
remembrance  of  the  days  when  African  slave  labour  tended 
his  great-grandfather's  sugar  canes  and  maize. 

But  Spanish  blood  is  predominant  and  Spanish  qualities 
distinguish  most  of  the  Argentine,  and  all  of  the  Uruguayan, 
leading  families  of  to-day.  Ceremoniously  courteous  to  a 
fault — the  fault  of  deeming  it  rude  ever  to  refuse  a  favour 
asked  ;  regarding  it  as  a  strange  lack  of  savoir  vivre  on  the 
part  of  the  suppliant  should  the  latter  not  understand  the 
granting  as  a  mere  polite  formality,  in  no  way  to  be  taken  as 
a  serious  engagement. 

40 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  41 

An  Argentine  will  ask  a  favour  of  another  as  a  mere  hint 
that  he  would  be  very  glad  if  the  latter  granted  it ;  a 
stranger  ignorant  of  Argentine  manners  and  ways  might  ask 
it  really  expecting  to  receive  a  substantial  response  to  his 
request.  Both  would  be  met  with  a  charming  if  vague  asser- 
tion that  nothing  would  give  the  person  asked  greater 
pleasure  than  to  do  anything  the  asker  desired.  Each  might 
attain  his  object  or  not,  as  other  considerations  dictated  ; 
but  whereas  the  demand  would  be  credited  to  the  former  as 
finesse,  contempt  for  boorishness  would  be  the  lot  of  the 
latter  did  he  present  himself  expectant  of  the  immediate 
fulfilment  of  the  promise.  Almost  as  well  might  he  turn  up 
unexpectedly  to  lunch  at  the  home  of  an  Argentine  who  on 
first  receiving  him  had  said  with  a  graciously  comprehensive 
wave  of  his  hand,  "  This  house  is  yours." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  an  Argentine's  home  is  a  very  difficult 
castle  for  a  stranger  to  enter. 

This  probably  for  two  chief  reasons.  For  the  first  of  these 
we  must  trace  racial  elements  back  to  the  Moorish  civilization 
of  Spain  and  the  jealous  seclusion  of  women  from  all  male 
eyes  but  those  of  close  relations.  The  second  is  a  general  lack 
of  orderliness  (also  an  Oriental  characteristic)  usually  pre- 
vailing in  even  the  richest  Argentine  households  ;  which 
makes  it  inconvenient  to  receive  except  on  special  and 
specially  prepared  occasions. 

We  must  follow  up  the  Arab-Semitic  blood  brought  in  the 
veins  of  the  Spaniard  to  the  new  world  through  mingling 
with  Native  Indian  and  Negro  blood  before  we  come  to  the 
heroes  who  fought  for  and  won  independence  from  Spanish 
rule  now  over  a  century  ago.  Since  then  what  intermarry- 
ings,  mostly  with  natives  of  Italy  but  also  with  British, 
French,  German,  Scandinavian  and  Belgian  men  and  women. 
Guthries,  Dumas,  Murphys,  Schneidewinds,  Christo- 
pherscns,  De  Bruyns,  Bungcs,  not  to  mention  bearers  of  the 
historic  patronymics  of  Brown  and  O'Higgins,  are  now  among 
the  landed  aristocracy   of   Argentina  ;    though,   still,   the 


42  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

creme  de  la  crime  consists  of  the  descendants  of  the  Spanish 
families  of  Colonial  days.  Among  the  middle  and  lower 
classes,  especially  in  the  towns,  the  Italianate  element  is 
now  overwhelming  ;  though  recently  again  Spanish  immi- 
gration has  begun  to  exceed  Italian.  All  this  goes  to  make 
a  strange  racial  mixture  ;  of  which  the  first  generation  born 
on  Argentine  soil  knows  little  about  and  cares  nothing  for 
the  language  of  its  parents,  but  grows  up  with  a  pride, 
comical  to  the  detached  observer,  in  the  glorious  Wars  of 
Independence  (fought  at  a  period  when  its  own  ancestry 
were,  as  likely  as  not,  peasants  in  one  or  another  comer  of 
Europe,  and  wholly  ignorant  of  the  fact  of  the  existence  of 
the  River  Plate)  and  patriotically  devoted  to  the  blue  and 
white  Banner  and  National  Anthem  (an  Italian  composition, 
by  the  by)  of  the  land  of  their  parents'  adoption. 

Everyone  born  on  Argentine  or  Uruguayan  soil  is  Argen- 
tine or  Uruguayan  of  his  own  very  decided  will  as  well  as 
legally ;  furiously  so  with  the  exclusive  fervour  of  the 
convert.  He  cannot  or  will  not  speak  English,  French, 
German,  Swedish,  Norwegian,  Danish  or  Flemish  as  the  case 
may  be  ;  nothing  but  Spanish,  River  Plate  Spanish,  that  is 
to  say,  is  worthy  of  his  tongue,  and  he  has  a  truly  Galician 
contempt  for  the  lisping  Spanish  of  Castile. 

Contrarily  to  a  generally  accepted  but  quite  superficial 
view,  an  Uruguayan  differs  from  an  Argentine  almost  if  not 
quite  as  much  as  a  Portuguese  does  from  a  Spaniard  ;  the 
reason  being  that  the  early  immigration  to  the  two  countries 
was  drawn  from  different  parts  of  Spain.  The  first  settle- 
ment of  what  is  now  Uruguay  was  chiefly  drawn  from  the 
Canary  Islands  and  the  Basque  Provinces  ;  the  latter  origin 
being  easily  perceptible  from  a  glance  at  any  list  of  the  names 
of  prominent  Uruguayans,  past  or  present.  To  this  fact 
of  early  settlement  and  because  Uruguay  has,  until  quite 
recently,  offered  much  less  attraction  to  the  stream  of 
European  Emigration  which  flowed  past  Montevideo  to 
Buenos  Aires,  is  due  the  possession  of  the  high  degree  of 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  43 

many  sterling  qualities  which  distinguishes  Uruguayans  from 
their  cousins  of  the  other  shore  of  the  River  Plate.  These 
qualities  have  sustained  the  National  and  individual 
financial  credit  of  Uruguay  throughout  all  troubles  and 
political  vicissitudes.  She  as  a  Nation  and  her  individual 
traders  have  always  paid  loo  cents  gold  to  each  dollar  and 
her  commercial  community  has  successfully  negatived  any 
attempt  on  the  part  of  her  Governments  to  depart  from  the 
strictly  gold  basis  of  her  monetary  system.  The  Uruguayan 
dollar  is  worth  slightly  more  than  that  of  the  United  States. 
This  significant  fact  is  due  to  the  uncontaminated  preserva- 
tion of  racial  qualities  derived  through  the  old  Colonists  from 
the  Northern  parts  of  Spain  ;  especially  from  the  Basques, 
than  whom  no  honester,  nor  perhaps  more  obstinate,  people 
exist. 

LANGUAGE 

Everyone  knows  that  Spanish  is  the  language  of  the  River 
Plate  Republics  ;  but,  while  the  written  Spanish  of  South 
America  is  one  with  literary  Spanish  all  the  world  over,  the 
spoken  language  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay  differs  from 
Castilian  in  many  respects. 

The  first  of  these,  and  probably  the  most  interesting,  is 
the  survival  in  South  America  of  words  in  common  use  in 
the  days  of  the  early  conquistador es  and  colonists  but  which 
have  long  ago  fallen  into  disuse  in  Spain, 

These  words  gave  a  deal  of  trouble  a  few  years  ago  to 
certain  Argentine  amateur  philogists  who  made  more  or 
less  ingenious  endeavours  to  derive  them  from  the  aboriginal 
Ouichua  or  Guarani. 

It  was  reserved  for  Mr.  Paul  Groussac,  a  Frenchman  and 
the  custodian  of  the  Argentine  National  Library,  to  inform 
these  derivation  hunters,  in  a  coldly  sarcastic  little  pamphlet, 
that  they  would  lind  all  the  words  that  were  puzzling  them 
intact  in  the  works  of  Cervantes  and  other  old  Spanish 
authors. 


44  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

So  it  is  with  many  Britons  not  learned  in  philology. 
There  are  many  words  and  expressions  commonly  regarded 
as  Americanisms  which  in  truth  went  to  New  England  in 
the  Mayflower. 

There  are  also  several  striking  differences  between  the 
pronunciation  of  Spanish  on  the  River  Plate  and  in  Spain. 
Thus  the  "  11  "  which  is  liquid  in  pure  Castilian  is  given  in 
South  America  a  sound  very  much  like  the  French  "  j  "  in 
je.  This,  I  believe  to  have  come  to  the  New  World  with  the 
Galician  immigration.^ 

In  the  beginning  of  historical  times  the  various  Galician 
dialects  prevailed  over  the  whole  Peninsula  ;  Galician  sub- 
sequently developing  into  modern  Portuguese  and  the 
Castilian  dialect,  with  much  more  widely  divergent  steps  of 
development,  becoming  the  accepted  language  of  Spain. 

Also  the  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  disdain  the  lisping 
"  d"  sound  given  by  Spaniards  to  the  letter  " z "  and  in  a 
lighter  degree  to  "  c."  In  South  American  Spanish  "z," 
soft  "  c"  and  "  s  "  are  indistinguishable  to  the  ear  ;  all 
three  being  given  the  same  sound  as  an  English  "  s." 
There  is  also,  as  might  be  expected,  a  distinct  difference  of 
intonation  between  Spanish  as  she  is  spoken  in  South 
America  and  in  Spain.  Everyone  who  has  learned  to  speak 
Spanish  in  a  South  American  country  ever  afterwards  carries 
with  him  oral  evidence  of  the  place  of  origin  of  that  linguistic 
acquirement ;  just  as  does  a  foreigner  who  has  learned 
English  in  the  United  States.  So  it  is  with  South  African 
Dutch  ;  and  (may  it  be  said  ?)  Australian  English.  And  all 
Colonists  of  either  English,  Dutch  or  Spanish  origin  are 
consciously  proud  of  their  own  particular  fashion  of  speaking 
and,  either  secretly  or  openly,  regard  the  intonation  of  the 
older  country  as  rather  effeminately  affected.  De  gustibus, 
etc. 

Really,  I  suppose,  there  is  no  good  or  bad  "  accent,"  as 
these  differences  of  intonation  are  commonly  called.     It  is 

^  See,  e.g.  Spanish,  Llegar  :   Portuguese,  Chegav. 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  45 

like  flavour,  chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  a  matter  of  custom  and 
taste.  Pronunciation,  however,  seems  more  frequently  a 
matter  of  fashion,  recurrent  as  are  other  fashions  in  easily 
dated  periods. 

Probably  the  South  American  pronunciation  of  Spanish 
mostly  dates  back  to  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries ; 
with,  perhaps,  an  added  blunt  plainness  born  of  generations 
of  free  rough  life  on  the  vast  expanses  of  the  Pampa. 

Modern  innovations  in  the  written  or  spoken  language  of 
Argentina  and  Uruguay  can  usually  be  traced  to  the  great 
stream  of  immigration  constantly  flowing  to  these  countries, 
chiefly  from  Italy  and  Spain. 


ARGENTINES   AND    URUGUAYANS 

The  inhabitants  of  the  two  Republics  of  Argentina  and 
Uruguay  are  only  similar  in  appearance  and  natural  charac- 
teristics to  the  superficial  or  hasty  observer.  There  are 
several  points  in  which  they  really  differ  fundamentally, 
the  difference  being  due,  as  has  just  been  observed,  to 
the  fact  that  the  original  settlements  of  the  two  parts 
of  the  River  Plate  Territories  were  drawn  from  different 
parts  of  Spain  and  that  the  later  cosmopolitan  stream  of 
immigration  passed  by  Montevideo,  on  account  of  the 
constantly  politically  disturbed  condition  of  Uruguay,  and 
disembarked  only  at  Buenos  Aires,  Therefore  the  Uruguayan 
has  retained  the  characteristics  of  his  Spanish  ancestors  in 
far  greater  purity  than  has  the  Argentine, 

It  is  therefore  impossible  to  club  the  two  peoples  together 
in  any  attempt  at  a  description  or  even  indication  of  their 
leading  characteristics. 

By  way  of  rough  comparison  it  may  be  said  that  while 
the  Argentine  has  gained  in  polish  and  versatility  by  inter- 
breeding with  immigrants  from  many  European  countries, 
chiefly  from  all  parts  of  Italy,  the  Uruguayan  has  retained 
a  very  large  share  of  the  dogged  honesty,  obstinacy  and 


46  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

capacity  for  sustained  effort  in  hard  work  of  his  Basque  and 
Galician  ancestors. 

In  passing  from  comparison  to  particular  analysis  one  is 
at  once  confronted  with  the  difficult  question,  "  What  is  an 
Argentine  ?  " 

According  to  Argentine  Law,  all  children  born  on  Argen- 
tine soil  are  ipso  facto  Argentines,  but  to  attempt  classifi- 
cation of  the  offspring  of  mixed  marriages  in  several  degrees 
of  remoteness  of  parentage  would  immediately  become  a 
complex  impossibility.  Certain  influences,  however,  im- 
posed by  the  life  and  surroundings  in  Argentina,  affect  all 
individuals  brought  up  there,  no  matter  what  may  be  or 
have  been  the  nationality  of  their  immediate  or  remoter 
ancestry. 

But,  with  this  exception,  any  description  or  setting  forth 
of  the  leading  characteristics  of  "  Argentines  "  can  only 
safely  be  submitted  in  regard  to  the  direct  descendants  of 
the  Spanish  Conquistadores  and  early  settlers  and  of  the 
mixed  unions  between  these  and  the  aboriginal  Indian 
women.  The  further  but  much  rarer  admixture  of  African 
blood  introduced  by  slave  labour,  is  almost  a  negligible 
quantity  in  the  upper  classes,  though  of  considerable  and 
noticeable  influence  in  the  lower,  especially  in  the 
Northern  Provinces,  in  which  the  mixture  of  Indian  and 
Negro  blood  is  very  considerable. 

Nevertheless,  these  elements  of  vSpanish,  Indian  and 
Negro  became  fused  into  a  national  type  the  picturesqueness 
of  which  is  now  (alas  !)  being  rapidly  absorbed  and  trans- 
formed in  the  melting-pot  in  which  it  meets  strange  elements 
from  every  part  of  civilized  Europe. 

Still,  the  chivalrous  and  courteous  Argentine  to  be  found 
to-day  not  only  in  the  National  Senate  (and  in  the  Presi- 
dential chair),  but  also  in  the  maize  fields  and  sugar  planta- 
tions of  the  far  Western  and  Northern  Provinces  cannot  be 
overlooked  either  as  very  important  prime  material  for  the 
coming  race  or  as  possessing  many  qualities  the  dilution  of 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  47 

which  can  only  be  viewed  with  a  sincere,  if  partly  sentimental, 
regret. 

Are  you  a  travelling  stranger  ?  The  gaucJio  will  offer  you 
of  the  very  best  his  humble  ranch  affords  with  the  same 
native  charm  and  dignity  of  manner  which  will  strike  you 
on  your  arrival  and  welcome  on  the  estancia  of  his  ancestral 
overlord. 

There  are  still  corners  of  Argentina  where  the  patriarchal 
system  has  not  yet  died  out,  where  every  peon  and  vaquero 
considers  himself  a  child  of  the  great  house  whose  sefiora 
sees  to  the  creature  comforts  and  small  luxuries  of  his  wife 
and  children  on  feast-days  and  in  the  time  of  need. 

No  stately  old-world  courtesy  could  ever  have  surpassed 
that  of  an  Argentine  host  of  the  old  school.  Truly,  on  his 
estancia,  all  is  yours,  and  he  will  frequently  make  you  a 
daily  offering  of  fruit,  chosen  by  him,  picked  with  his  own 
hand,  especially  and  exclusively  for  you,  his  guest.  The 
aristocratic  Argentine  of  the  old  school  is  a  very  dignified 
gentleman  indeed,  notwithstanding  a  century  of  democratic 
profession.  I  say  "  profession,"  for  though  I  believe  the 
leading  families  of  the  Republic  are  quite  sincere  in  a  con- 
viction that  they  rank  among  the  world's  most  advanced 
democrats,  the  government  of  the  country  has  remained 
almost  exclusively  in  their  truly  patrician  hands  since  the 
days  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  What  may  happen 
in  the  present  newly  commenced  era  of  compulsory  exercise 
of  a  universal  franchise  no  one  can  well  say,  but  most  of  the 
landed  influence  still  belongs  to  the  great  historic  Argentine 
families  ;  who,  moreover,  form  a  caste  which  keeps  even 
the  plutocracy  of  more  recently  foreign  origin  at  a  quite 
respectful  distance.  It  will  be  a  long  time,  at  any  rate, 
before  the  prestige  of  these  families  ceases  to  make  its 
influence  felt  in  the  capital  as  well  as  in  the  districts  over 
which  they  have  ruled  for,  practically,  at  least  a  century. 
The  apparent  familiarity  which  exists  between  them  and 
their  dependants  or  humbler  provincial  neighbours  is  the 


48  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

outcome  of  the  loyal  affection  which  at  one  time  existed  in 
England  between  squire  and  farmer  or  villager.  A  feeling 
born  of  and  sustained  by  the  patriarchal  system  and  very 
widely  different  to  the  "  I  am  as  good  as  you  are  "  pre- 
tensions of  new  democracy. 

The  true  Argentine,  be  he  patrician,  estanciero  or  gaucho 
peon  is  never  boorish  even  when  he' seeks  to  pick  a  quarrel 
with  studied  insult ;  and  if  his  humour  and  language  would, 
at  times,  severely  shock  European  ears  polite,  he  is  studiously 
careful  to  keep  that  sort  of  talk  for  the  intimacy  of  his  own 
household  and  associates.  If  you  are  admitted  to  that  inti- 
macy, well,  so  much  the  worse  for  you,  if  you  are  of  a  prudish 
disposition,  but  you  can  console  yourself  that  your  privilege 
is  a  very  special  and  rare  one  ;  bestowed  on  you  by  virtue 
of  some  exceptionally  sympathetic  quality  with  which  your 
host's  kindly  imagination  has  endowed  you.  He  is  a  kindly, 
charitable  man,  the  real  Argentine  :  an  odd  mixture  of  in- 
fantile vanity  and  strong  common  sense,  hospitable  to  any- 
one arriving  at  his  house  through  force  of  circumstance  or  if 
he  can  find  a  reasonable  excuse  to  himself  for  breaking 
through  the  rule  of  almost  hareem-like  privacy  of  his  home 
and  intimate  family  affairs.  Courteous  himself,  he  expects 
courtesy,  and  will  not  brook  clumsiness  of  speech  or  manner. 
Leisurely  in  his  ways,  he  will  not  be  hustled  over  any 
business.  Try  to  hurry  him,  and  he  not  only  resents  your 
lack  of  good  manners  but  also  suspects  that  you  are  en- 
deavouring to  lead  him  into  some  kind  of  sharp-dealing 
trap.  Anyway,  he  not  only  will  not  budge  an  inch  from  his 
own  deliberate  attitude  but  most  probably  will  oppose  the 
inertia  of  a  closed  front  door  to  all  your  further  endeavours 
to  approach  him.  This  Argentine  characteristic  is  a  rock 
on  which  many  a  Yankee  hustler  has  seen  his  best  thought- 
out  propositions  founder. 

In  any  business  or  other  intercourse  with  a  true  Argentine 
you  must  not  expect  him  to  keep  verbally  made  appoint- 
ments nor  to  apologize  subsequently  for  not  having  done  so. 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  49 

Usually  you  need  not  trouble  to  keep  them  yourself.  What- 
ever you  have  in  hand  with  him  will  prosper  better  and 
progress  just  as,  or  even  more,  quickly  if  you  are  content  to 
take  the  matter  up  where  you  left  it  at  your  last  interview, 
the  next  time  you  happen  to  meet  him  by  chance  at  any  at 
all  convenient  place  or  time.  Do  not  talk  him  to  death 
about  it,  he  is  very  quick  at  understanding  your  wishes  and 
proposed  plans  from  the  merest  hint.  If  not,  he  will  ask  you 
very  plain  questions. 

But  he  must  conduct  the  negotiations,  he  must  clothe 
your  ideas  until  they  bear  a  respectable  appearance  of  being 
of  his  own  originating.  That  is  his  vanity  ;  but  only  then 
may  you  venture  to  strip  them  of  certain  new  features 
which  on  close  examination  will  be  seen  to  be  more  favour- 
able to  his  interests  than  your  own. 

During  the  changes  which  your  propositions  will  inevitably 
undergo  in  the  course  of  negotiations,  he  may,  if  you  are  not 
careful,  get  the  better  of  you  in  the  deal.  That  also  is  his 
vanity  ;  a  vanity  to  guard  against  without  ever  committing 
the  solecism  of  a  too  bluntly  apparent  discovery  of  his  aim. 
If  he  finds  you  always  politely  firm  as  a  gentleman  should 
be,  you  will  have  gained  his  friendship  and  respect — often 
valuable  assets  even  if  your  original  business  should  not  go 
through. 

In  a  word,  in  Argentina,  as  elsewhere,  one  must  respect 
the  native  customs  and  conventionalities  unless  one  wishes 
to  encounter  opposition.  And  the  vis  inertia  of  the 
opposition  which  an  Argentine  can  and  does  offer  to 
persons  and  ideas  with  which  he  is  out  of  sympathy  is 
invincible. 

Such  persons  or  schemes  will  be  remitted  by  him  to  a 
"  Mailana  "  which  never  comes. 

That  is  the  true  inward  meaning  in  Argentina  of  mafiana  ; 

a  polite  excuse  for  temporarily  or  definitely  postponing 

matters  which  have  not  made  a  favourable  impression.     It 

is  not,  as  is  so  often  thought,  a  mere  lazy  pretext  for  not 

4 


50  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

doing  to-day  anything  that  possibly  can  be  put  off  till  to- 
morrow. 

The  Argentine  is  not  in  the  least  lazy.  On  the  contrary, 
he  has  reserve  stores  of  latent  energy  the  sudden  calling  into 
action  of  which,  when  he  considers  such  action  called  for,  is 
apt  to  astonish  those  who  have  formed  superficial  and  hasty 
judgments  on  his  nature. 

It  would  seem  trite  to  say  that  the  first  step  to  success  in 
a  country  is  intelligent  study  of  the  inhabitants  were  it  not 
so  constantly  evident  that  new  arrivals,  who  really  ought  to 
know  better,  seem  to  bring  with  them  the  idea  that  along 
with  their  business,  whatever  it  may  be,  they  have  brought 
a  mission  to  mould  Argentine  methods  on  the  latest  Euro- 
pean or  North  American  forms,  forms  which  are  the  outcome 
of  entirely  different  racial  and  climatic  conditions.  Thus, 
they,  at  the  outset,  impose  upon  themselves  the  Sisyphus 
task  of  rolling  their  pet  stones  up  the  hill  of  customs  which 
really  are  the  outcome  of  the  racial  and  physical  necessities 
of  the  people  and  country. 

You  cannot  grow  wheat  in  a  swamp  nor  make  much  of  a 
retriever  out  of  a  pointer,  but  the  swamp  may  yield  good 
rice  and  a  pointer  may  be  a  very  good  dog  in  his  way. 

The  sooner  an  immigrant,  be  he  financier  or  farmer, 
realizes  such  facts  the  better  for  his  success  on  the  River 
Plate  or  elsewhere.  By  not  doing  so  he  fails  in  his  enterprise 
and  blames  the  failure  on  to  the  people  or  country  to  which 
he  took  projects  predoomed  only  by  his  own  lack  of  intelli- 
gent adaptability. 

Another  word  of  didactic  advice  to  the  intending  emigrant 
to  Argentina.  Always  be  sure,  no  matter  what  his  appear- 
ance and  manners  may  seem  to  indicate  to  your  first  glance 
at  him,  that  every  action  of  an  Argentine  is  firmly  founded 
on  a  perfectly  common-sense  view  of  circumstances  and  their 
influence  on  his  own  best  interests,  although  that  foundation 
may  lie  under,  and,  for  those  who  do  not  really  know  him, 
be  hidden  by  various  strata  of  personal  vanity  and  easily 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  51 

aroused  but  ephemeral  enthusiasm.  He  is  no  fool  and  most 
emphatically  not  a  lazy  man,  but  only  one  who  is  rather 
cynically  apt  to  let  other  people  work  for  him  as  much 
and  as  often  as  they  will.  When  he  cannot  get  things 
done  for  him  he  can  and  will  do  them,  very  effectively,  for 
himself. 

And  lest,  to  some  people,  the  foregoing  observations  and 
counsel  might  seem  so  much  word-embroidery  on  a  canvas 
composed  mostly  of  the  author's  imagination,  the  reader  is 
humbly  asked  to  compare  it  with  the  known  facts  of  Argen- 
tine economic  history. 

In  1810,  the  beginning  of  the  country's  real  development, 
the  great  River  Plate  landowner  was  a  rural  patriarch, 
much  after  the  fashion  of  the  shepherd  kings  of  Palestine, 

He  ousted  the  Master-Stranger  from  his  land  and  only 
afterwards  permitted  him  and  encouraged  him  to  return  to 
it  as  the  servant  of  himself,  the  true  overlord  of  the  soil. 
On  that  soil  its  patriarchs  extended  their  proprietary  rights 
ever  more  and  more  while  foreign  railways  and  all  kinds  of 
other  enterprise  constantly  enhanced  the  value  of  the  land 
held,  always  almost  exclusively,  by  Argentines.  His  railway 
and  dock-building  servants  from  overseas  got  very  good 
wages  indeed  for  their  work,  as  they  still  do  in  common  with 
others  who  have  made  tramways  and  constructed  water,  gas 
and  electrical  power  works.  But  he  who  up  to  now  has  had 
the  most  durable  and  the  chief  profit  from  all  this  is  the 
Argentine  or  Uruguayan  ;  the  man  who  holds  and  will  hold 
the  Government  of  the  two  Republics  and  retains  all  the 
appreciated  value  of  the  much  greater  part  of  the  soil  of  their 
vast  territories.  Concessions  of  land  to  foreigners  made  in 
the  past  by  way  of  part  wages  are  nowadays  secretly  regarded 
as  having  been  errors  committed  in  ignorance  of  the  real 
value  of  what  was  then  parted  with  and  with  such  self- 
accusation  of  error  goes  the  resolve  not  to  repeat  it.  Still  it 
should  be  stated  that  at  the  time  of  making  such  grants 
some  such  inducement  was  necessary  in  a  part  of  the  world 


52  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

which  had  only  very  recently  emerged  from  half  a  century 
of  civil  war. 

It  is,  of  course,  self-evident  that  no  new  railway  enterprise 
will  get  a  huge  grant  of  land ;  as  did  the  Central  Argentine 
Company  as  an  inducement  to  construct.  The  attitude  of 
the  Argentine  to-day  to  all  foreigners  is  that  they  may  come 
to  his  country  and  there  enjoy  similar  rights  and  liberties 
with  himself  coupled  with  rather  less  than  his  own  responsi- 
bilities. They  may  keep  the  profits  they  make,  and  very 
good  profits  are  obtainable  by  well-conducted,  necessary 
enterprise,  after  deduction  of  certain  percentage  by  way  of 
rent  for  their  concessions  or  licences  ;  but  the  real  property, 
the  value  of  which  is  constantly  being  increased  by  the 
activity  of  foreign  industry  and  commerce,  remains  in,  and 
even  as  to  formerly  alienated  parts  of  it  gradually  tends  to 
drift  more  and  more  into,  native  hands. 

The  Argentine  is,  as  I  have  said,  not  a  fool,  even  still  less 
is  the  Uruguayan  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  is  especially  wise  in 
his  appreciation  of  his  own  natural  limitations.  He  is  by 
long  heredity  and  his  own  upbringing  a  farmer,  not  a  com- 
mercial man  nor  a  speculator  in  aught  else  but  land.  And 
to  land,  therefore  as  well  as  for  the  other  good  reasons 
already  pointed  out,  he  devotes  his  best  attention. 

He  cannot,  perhaps,  build  nor  manage  railways,  nor  has 
he  generally  a  genius  for  banking,  but  he  can  and  does  breed 
as  fine  cattle  and  sheep  and  grow  as  good  quality  maize  and 
wheat  as  any  imported  European  farm  manager.  In  farming, 
the  special  subject  which  he  does  thoroughly  understand,  he 
gives  practical  evidence  of  his  judgment  in  assimilation  of 
the  best  farming  science  and  of  adapting  it,  or  such  part 
of  it  as  is  most  capable  of  adaptation,  to  the  conditions  and 
requirements  of  his  own  particular  lands. 

The  finest  and  the  most  up-to-date  model  estancias  in 
Argentina  and  Uruguay  belong  to  and  have  been  brought 
to  their  present  state  of  perfection  by  Argentines  and 
Uruguayans. 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  53 

Probably  these  facts  dispose  of  the  accusation  of  dilatory 
laziness  so  often  brought  against  him. 

In  this  chapter  I  have  attempted  to  inform  intending 
emigrants  and  not  to  formulate  a  defence  of  the  Argentine 
or  Uruguayan  against  the  ignorance  of  his  calumniators. 
He  needs  none.  With  a  charmingly  cynical  indifference, 
which  is  all  his  own  but  which  it  does  not  at  all  times  suit  his 
interests  to  manifest,  he  goes  on  piling  up  colossal  fortunes 
amid  surroundings  much  more  congenial  to  his  nature  than 
even  the  European  Grand  Hotels  or  Cafes  in  which  he  likes 
from  time  to  time  to  disport  himself  and  display  his  wealth. 
His  estancia  always  remains  his  home,  in  which  he  spends  the 
best  and  greatest  portion  of  his  life,  surrounded  by  the  peons 
whose  great-grandfathers  were  vassals  of  his  own. 

It  is  rather  the  fashion  among  new  arrivals  in  Buenos 
Aires  and  Montevideo  to  laugh  at  the  Argentines  and  Uru- 
guayans and  their  ways  of  managing  their  affairs,  but  it 
appears  to  me  that  this  is  a  case  of  "  He  laughs  best  who 
laughs  last."  The  native  of  the  River  Plate  has  contrived 
to  get  his  country  developed  for  him  while  retaining  the 
entire  mastery  of  it.  Men  of  long  residence  in  these  countries 
have  practically  adopted  their  manners  and  customs  simply 
because  experience  has  taught  them  that  such  are  best 
adapted  to  these  countries'  natural  conditions.  As  has  been 
observed  earlier  in  this  chapter,  the  Argentine,  especially,  is 
conscious  of  his  own  limitations,  one  of  the  chief  of  which  is 
a  pretty  general  incapacity  for  patient  attention  to  detail  in 
his  work.  His  scientific  acquirements  are  often  brilliant  as 
far  as  study  is  concerned.  He  assimilates  knowledge  rapidly 
and  accurately,  but  in  its  application  he  is  often  too  apt  to 
fail  of  obtaining  satisfactory  results  just  and  only  because 
of  his  lack  of  patience  and  appreciation  of  the  value  of  detail 
in  practice.  That  is  why  he  prudently  abandoned  his  own 
past  attempts  to  control  certain  of  his  railways  which, 
financial  failures  under  his  management,  quickly  became 
prosperous  concerns  in  British  hands.     His  hospitals  still 


54  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

show  many  defects  due  solely  to  the  lack  of  attention  to 
necessary  details  on  the  part  of  the  medical  staff.  BrilHant 
exceptions,  which  unfortunately  do  not  vitiate  this  rule,  are 
to  be  found  in  Mr.  Lertora,  the  Argentine  manager  of  the 
Western  Railway,  and  Dr.  Penna,  the  President  of  the 
National  Council  of  Hygiene  and  the  creator  of  the  mag- 
nificently managed  Asistencia  Publica  of  Buenos  Aires  and 
of  all  the  great  sanitary  works  of  that  city. 

To  sum  up  the  average  Argentine  of  the  upper  classes,  in 
middle  age  and  onward  he  is  a  grave  and  reverend  sefior  ;  a 
rather  wild  and  boisterous  young  gentleman  until  he  has 
sown  a  profusion  of  wild  oats. 

Throughout  his  life  he  shows  a  childlike  pride  in  his  wealth 
and  all  it  can  give  to  him  and  his,  is  lavish  in  largesse  with 
occasional  and  seemingly  capricious  moments  of  close-fisted- 
ness.  Courteous  to  a  fault  in  manner,  he  has  nevertheless 
ever  a  keen  eye  for  the  main  chance  in  all  matter  of  sufficient 
magnitude  to  really  interest  him. 

In  fact  he  has  many  characteristics  which  are  reminiscent 
of  the  less  objectionable  qualities  of  mediaeval  nobility,  in 
common  with  whom  he  is  quick  to  resent  anything  he  deems 
intentional  insult  to  or  disparagement  of  himself.  He  will 
forgive  anyone  for  having  got  the  better  of  him  in  a  deal 
(though  it  is  fair  to  him  to  say  that  it  is  not  often  he  finds 
himself  the  victim  of  such  an  offence) ,  but  he  will  not  for  any 
consideration  brook  clumsily  bad  manners.  He  is  by  no 
means  a  puritanical  moralist  nor  severe  on  the  moral  pecca- 
dillos of  his  neighbours,  and  he  leaves  religion  pretty  much 
to  his  women-folk. 

In  the  lower  classes  he  is  still  always  courteous,  expects 
courtesy  from  others,  and  resents,  quickly  and  often  fiercely, 
any  defect  in  that  respect  in  his  neighbour's  behaviour. 

Neither  will  he  brook  pretentious  arrogance  in  any  man, 
his  social  superior  or  his  equal.  Such  arrogance  meets  im- 
mediately not  only  with  his  quick  resentment  but  his  pro- 
found and  evident  disdain.    Treat  him  as  he  will  treat  you. 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  55 

and  you  will  find  him  uniformly  pleasant,  light-hearted  and 
humorous.  Obligatory  education  is  slowly  freeing  him  from 
the  illiteracy  which  until  recently  was  very  general,  especially 
outside  the  limits  of  the  Capital  or  one  or  other  of  the  largest 
towns.  Even  now  the  lower-class  Argentine  is  usually  an 
exceedingly  poor  scholar.  Therefore,  and  because  of  his 
rapidly  growing  admixture  of  Italian  peasant  blood,  he  is 
superstitious  and  still  often  has  a  deeper  faith  in  fortune- 
telling  quacks  than  in  qualified  medical  science.  Wise  men 
and  women  are  still  much  consulted  for  love-potions  and 
cures  and  curses  of  all  sorts  for  man  and  beast  in  the  country 
districts,  but  while  mere  fortune-tellers  are  not  interfered 
with  by  the  law,  penal  restrictions  are  being  more  and 
more  stringently  enforced  against  quack  doctors  ;  most  of 
whose  remedies  have  come  direct  from  mediaeval  Spain  or 
Italy. 

Argentine  women  ?  This  is  a  subject  on  which  one  is  not 
only  tempted  but  almost  forced  to  confine  oneself  to  the 
usual  platitudes  concerning  beauty  of  the  Spanish  type  : 
large-eyed  and  opulent  and  at  its  apogee  during  the  decade 
between  15  and  25  years  of  age. 

It  is  seldom  that  an  Argentine  woman  of  any  class  troubles 
her  head  with  business  matters  ;  still  less  with  theories  con- 
cerning the  rights  of  her  sex.  She  is  usually  content  to  do 
her  most  apparent  duty  in  the  sphere  to  which  it  has  pleased 
God  to  call  her. 

She  manages  her  household  in  a  quasi-Oriental  haphazard 
way ;  if  of  the  wealthier  classes  does  little  but  order  that 
household  in  such  ways  as  may  correspond  to  her  momentary 
caprice,  if  of  the  poorer,  naturally,  she  does  the  work  herself, 
but  in  the  same  capricious  fashion. 

Saturday  is  the  great  day  for  domestic  cleaning  up 
throughout  all  classes,  Sunday  a  feast  day  whereon  little 
work  is  done. 

Apart  from  these  general  fixtures,  household  duties  may 
be  said  never  to  be  begun  and  never  finished.    In  all  houses 


56  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

one  may  see  the  servants  or  the  housewife,  as  the  case  may 
be,  besom  in  one  hand  and  mate  in  the  other  at  any  time  of 
day.  What  is  not  done  to-day  is  finished  to-morrow,  that 
is  all ;   and  what  can  one  do  more  ? 

To  newly  arrived  Europeans  these  methods  give  an  idea 
of  continual  discomfort,  but  the  sooner  such  Europeans 
become  accustomed  to  the  ways  of  the  country  in  this  as  in 
other  matters  the  better  for  their  own  peace  of  mind.  Of 
one  thing  they  may  be  assured  from  the  commencement  of 
their  stay  on  the  River  Plate,  viz.  that  it  is  not  they  who  will 
change  those  ways  by  an  iota,  and  that  therefore  they  may 
as  well  abandon  all  notions  of  what  they  would  consider  as 
reform  of  good  grace  to  begin  with  instead  of  at  the  end  of  a 
more  or  less  lengthy  nerve-racking  struggle. 

The  servant  difficulty  is  particularly  difficult  in  these 
sunny  lands  where  no  one  need,  and  very  few  do,  know  what 
it  is  to  suffer  the  real  pinch  of  want  or  of  hardship  other  than 
such  as  custom  sanctions.  The  European  lady  who  worries 
her  servants  with,  to  them,  new  ideas  of  how  her  household 
should  be  conducted  will  simply  cause  them  to  quit  her 
employ  with  wonderful  unanimity  and  celerity. 

They  won't  stop,  that  is  all.  She  may  give  them  sleeping 
or  other  accommodation  which  they  may  never  before  have 
enjoyed  nor  probably  even  dreamed  of.  These  attentions 
strike  no  sympathetic  chord  if  they  be  accompanied  by  what 
the  native  Argentine  considers  silly  pettiness  of  interference 
with  the  way  in  which  he  or  she  is  accustomed  to  do  his  or 
her  work.  Any  Argentine  servant  would  sooner  sleep,  as 
many  do,  on  a  mattress  thrown  down  at  night  in  any  passage 
way  in  the  house  of  a  native  Argentine  family  and  suffer  the 
alternate  friendly  familiarity  and  impassioned  scolding  of  a 
mistress  whose  ways  they  understand  and  who  leaves  them 
to  theirs,  than  occupy  the  nicest  possible  servant's  bedroom 
in  a  more  strictly  ordered  establishment.  The  true  and  main 
lesson  of  all  which  is  that  the  Argentine,  to  whatever  social 
class  he  or  she  may  belong,  is  a  child  of  nature  to  whom  dis- 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  57 

ciplinary  fetters  of  any  kind  are  unbearable  and  to  the  freer 
nature  of  whom  the  monotony  of  much  of  the  punctual 
regularity  which  Europeans  are  apt  to  consider  a  necessary 
factor  of  real  comfort  is  impossibly  burdensome. 

On  the  River  Plate  one  must  live  as  the  Rio  Platenseans  do 
if  one's  stay  is  not  to  be  one  continued  struggle  for  unattain- 
able domestic  ideals.  In  the  best  hotels,  in  the  millionaire's 
palace  or  the  peon's  hut  the  same  happy-go-lucky  spirit 
prevails  and  dominates  domestic,  as  it  also  does  public,  life, 
in  especially,  perhaps,  Argentina.  Everything  is  muddled 
through  somehow.  But  it  is  muddled  through  to  desired 
results,  which,  after  all,  is  the  chief  practical  desideratum. 

There  is  much  of  the  Spanish  seclusion  in  the  better-class 
home  life  of  both  Argentina  and  Uruguay,  which  adds  to  the 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  criticism  or  appreciation  by  a 
foreigner. 

That  the  children  are  almost  universally  what  we  should 
call  spoiled  is,  however,  evident  from  the  most  superficial 
experience  of  that  life.  The  Argentine  theories,  if  they  can 
be  termed  such,  of  bringing  up  are  largely  controlled  by  a 
fear  of  crushing  the  individuality  of  the  child  especially  if 
he  be  a  boy.  The  most  usual  reply  of  an  Argentine  child 
to  any  order  given  to  it  is  "  No  quiero  "  (I  don't  want  to), 
and  there  the  matter  ends.  The  parents  smile  indulgently, 
the  child  does  not  do  what  it  did  not  want  to  do,  and  woe 
betide  the  governess  or  tutor  who  is  possessed  of  too  strict 
disciplinary  ideas.  Thus,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  the 
male  Argentine  is  used  to  his  own  sweet  way,  while  his  sisters 
are  made  to  feel  few  trammels  of  a  purely  household  kind. 
These  apart,  however,  Argentine  women  seldom,  if  ever, 
show  any  symptoms  of  rebellion  against  the  domestic 
seclusion  which  is  their  accepted  lot,  especially  after  marriage. 

The  Argentine  woman  is  seldom  disturbed  by  intellectual 
aspirations,  likes  creature  comforts  and  facilities  for  the 
standard  of  dress  pertaining  to  her  station,  and  she  is 
contented  and  happy  in  her  home  with  the  theatre  as  a  dis- 


58  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

traction.  At  the  theatre  she  only  favours  performances 
which  demand  intellectual  effort  for  their  appreciation  if 
and  when  fashion  impels  her  attendance  thereat  ;  so  that 
she  may  see  and  be  seen  in  the  foyer  and  hold  pleasant  re- 
ceptions in  her  box,  receptions  not  always  confined  to  the 
extr'ades. 

In  a  word,  she  is  not  intellectual  and  therefore  feels  no 
need  for  troubling  her  usually  handsome  head  with  in- 
tellectuality. 

She  is  a  wife  and  a  mother  and  a  lady  bountiful  to  all  the 
feudal  dependants  of  her  husband's  house.  Childishly  fond 
of  dress  and  admiration  but  with  as  little  desire  for  liberty 
of  action  as  she  has  for  deep  thought. 

As  will  have  been  gathered  from  the  foregoing,  much  of 
the  Moorish  civilization  in  Spain  remains  reincarnate  in  the 
woman  of  modern  Argentina. 

A  word  may  very  well  be  said  here  for  the  much-criticized 
Argentine  jeunesse  doree.  In  the  author's  humble  opinion 
the  real  wonder  about  him  is  that  his  sometimes  objection- 
ably intrusive  boisterousness  in  public  places  does  not  out- 
step its  actually  not  very  wide  limitations. 

In  any  other  country,  if  you  had  a  warm-blooded  young 
scion  of  a  sunny  land  who  had  grown  up  under  the  almost 
constantly  approving  smiles  of  an  indulgent  father  and 
mother,  possessed  of  great  wealth  and  traditions  of  spending 
freely  on  amusement  and  outward  display  and,  lastly,  a 
native  police  which  would  almost  as  soon  dare  to  rebel 
openly  against  the  Government  as  to  lock  up  for  anything 
short  of  serious  and  unconcealable  crime  any  son  of  a  great 
ruling  family,  it  appears  to  me  more  than  possible  that  you 
would  have  much  more  trouble  with  such  a  gilded  youth, 
who,  moreover,  would  probably  succumb  to  early  physical 
and  financial  ruin  instead  of  developing,  as  has  been  said, 
into  a  grave  and  reverend  sefior,  capable  in  either  Chamber 
of  Congress  or  in  a  ministerial  or  diplomatic  capacity,  as  the 
Argentine  fils  de  famille  eventually  does.    That  he  does  so 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  59 

develop  and  does  not  succumb,  I  attribute  to  his  underlying 
quality  of  common  sense,  coupled  with  his  mainly  open-air 
upbringing  in  the  Camp. 

Also,  the  young  Argentine  may  be  and  often  is,  exceedingly 
fond  of  sowing  a  vast  quantity  of  wild  oats,  but  he  is  very 
seldom  ill-natured  or  fundamentally  bad.  His  very  vices 
are  strongly  tempered  with  redeemingly  generous  qualities. 

As  good  a  comparison  as  any  I  can  hit  on  between  the 
upper-class  Argentine  and  his  Uruguayan  cousin  is  that  of 
the  smart  Londoner  and  the  resident  in  a  provincial  Cathedral 
town.  The  latter  is  less  given  to  display  of  such  wealth  as 
he  may  have  and  much  less  likely  to  make  any  pretence  of 
greater.  The  Uruguayan  is  usually  unpretentious  in  his  way 
of  living  and  at  the  same  time  gives  an  impression  of  greater 
solidity  if  more  modest  dimensions  of  fortune.  Among 
both  there  is  the  same  aristocratic  assuredness  of  social 
position  ;  but  whereas  each  better-class  Argentine  seeks  to 
outvie  his  immediate  associates  in  luxurious  outward 
appearance,  the  Uruguayan  is  content  with  a  more  solid 
if  less  showy  all-round  level  of  comfort.  If  one  may  use  so 
discredited  a  term,  the  Uruguayan  is  the  much  more 
"  eminently  respectable  "  of  the  two,  a  man  who  derives 
his  greatest  pride  from  the  fact  that  his  word  always  has 
been  and  is  every  bit  as  good  as  his  bond. 

He  has  some  contempt  for  Argentine  showiness ;  while  on 
the  other  side  of  the  River  Plate  estuary  he  himself  is  con- 
sidered as  too  slow-going  to  be  very  interesting.  The 
Argentine  is  certainly  jealous  of  the  sounder  general  credit 
enjoyed  by  Uruguay,  a  jealousy  not  soothed  by  a  certain 
quiet  assumption  of  superiority  of  a  nation  which  has 
always  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  any  suggestions  of  convenient 
financial  juggling,  however  critical  or  difficult  the  times. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  while  the  Uruguayan  is 
possessed  of  common  sense  in  much  the  same  degree  as  is  the 
Argentine,  this  quality  is  in  the  former  tempered  by  a  large 
quantum  of  Quixotic  obstinacy. 


60  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Roughly  speaking — very  roughly,  for  generalization  is 
almost  as  hazardous  as  prophecy — it  may  be  said  that  while 
the  Argentine  is  often  apt  to  be  guided  rather  by  oppor- 
tunism than  fixed  principle,  the  Uruguayan  will  only  begin 
to  listen  to  the  voice  of  opportunity  when  he  feels  sure  that 
no  one  of  his  inflexible  principles  is  likely  to  be  affected  by 
so  doing. 

As  we  have  seen,  both  the  White  and  Red  political  parties 
in  Uruguay  have  over  and  over  again  racked  the  whole 
country  with  civil  war  for  the  defence  or  assertion  of  pure 
principles,  in  regard  to  which  no  compromise  seemed  possible 
to  one  side  or  the  other. 

Argentina  also  had  her  period  of  Civil  War  brought  about 
in  a  very  great  measure,  no  doubt,  by  similar  causes ;  but  her 
politicians  have  during  the  last  fifty  years  learned  the 
pecuniary  value  of,  at  least  apparent,  adaptabihty. 

The  Uruguayan  of  to-day  is  just  as  inflexible  in  his  con- 
victions as  he  was  a  century  ago,  and  if  he  now  chooses 
peace  rather  than  civil  war  it  is  because  he  has  become 
sincerely  persuaded  that  peace  is  the  only  real  way  to  his 
country's  best  good  and  prosperity.  Peace  with  honour, 
that  is  to  say.  He  would  rather  commit  pubUc  or  individual 
suicide  than  accept  any  other. 

For  this  reason  (and  for  others)  there  is  no  likehhood  of 
the  Banda  Oriental  ever  becoming  a  part  of  Argentina. 
Uruguayans  could  never  be  peacefully  governed  by  Argen- 
tine poHcy,  and  Argentina  would  never  wish  to  be  burdened 
by  such  a  troublesome  community  as  would  be  the  Uru- 
guayans if  they  should  come  under  her  nominal  rule.  As 
historical  fact,  Argentina  has  already  refused  Uruguayan 
territory  as  a  gift,  and  acted  wisely  in  such  refusal. 

The  lower  classes  and  rural  populations  of  Argentina  and 
Uruguay  differ,  pari  passu,  as  much  and  in  similar  fashion, 
from  one  another  as  do  their  respective  social  superiors, 
though  Camp  life  is  in  many  ways  Camp  life  in  both  Republics 
aUke.    But  ruggedly  uncompromising  staunchness  to  those 


RACIAL  ELEMENTS  61 

principles  which  he  has  adopted  for  his  own — which,  how- 
ever, may  differ  from  European  standards — is  as  evident  in 
the  Uruguayan  peon  as  in  his  master. 

Once  you  really  know  the  Argentine  or  the  Uruguayan,  it 
is  seldom  difficult  to  forecast  what  either  will  do  in  any 
given  circumstances.  Needless,  perhaps,  to  add  that  your 
study  of  them  must  be  sympathetic  ;  as  must  all  such  study 
in  order  to  obtain  positive  or  any  at  all  satisfactory  results. 


CHAPTER  V 

NATIONAL,   PROVINCIAL,    AND  MUNICIPAL 
GOVERNMENT 

THE  Constitutions  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay  differ 
chiefly  in  that  while  the  former  gives  a  large 
measure  of  autonomy  to  the  Provinces  (therein, 
as  in  other  respects,  being  closely  modelled  on  that  of  the 
United  States),  the  latter  does  not,  the  whole  legislative 
power  being  vested  in  the  National  Congress.^ 

Argentina  has  14  Provinces  and  11  National  Territories, 
including  the  district  of  the  Federal  Capital,  the  city  of 
Buenos  Aires.  Each  of  the  Provinces  has  a  Governor  and 
a  ParHament  of  its  own,  chosen  by  the  local  electorate,  and 
possesses,  as  has  been  said,  a  very  large  measure  of  autonomy 
in  the  management  of  its  own  fiscal  and  other  internal 
affairs.  Other  large  areas  which  are  not  yet  judged  by 
Congress  to  have  attained  sufficient  development  to  be  able 
to  support  the  financial  burdens  and  status  of  autonomous 
Provinces  have  remained  National  Territories  under  the 
direct  control  of  the  National  Government.  The  Municipal 
Council  of  the  Federal  Capital  has  wide  administrative 
powers,  always  subject,  however,  to  the  sanction  of  the 
National  Executive,  and  the  "  Lord  Mayor  "  (Intendente 
Municipal)  of  Buenos  Aires  is  appointed  by  the  National 
Government. 

The  National  Territory  likely  to  be  the  first  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  a  Province  is  that  of  the  Pampa  Central  ;  now 
one  of  the  chief  cereal  areas  of  the  Republic. 

^  In  both  countries  Congress  consists  of  a  Senate  and  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  In  Argentina  the  term  of  office  of  the  President  of  the  Republic 
is  six  years,  in  Uruguay  four  years. 

62 


GOVERNMENT  63 

The  Argentine  Provinces  and  National  Territories  are  the 
following  : 


I. 

PROVINCES 

Buenos  Aires. 

8. 

Mendoza. 

2. 

Santa  Fe. 

9- 

San  Juan. 

3- 

Entre  Rios. 

10. 

La  Rioja. 

4- 

Corrientes. 

II. 

Catamarca. 

5- 

Cordoba. 

12. 

Tucuman. 

6. 

San  Luis. 

13- 

Salta. 

7- 

Santiago  del  Estero. 

TERRITORIES 

14. 

Jujuy. 

I. 

Federal  Capital. 

7- 

Rio  Negro. 

2. 

Misiones. 

8. 

Chubut. 

3- 

Formosa. 

9- 

Santa  Cruz. 

4- 

Chaco. 

10. 

Tierra  del  Fuego. 

5- 

Pampa  Central. 

II. 

Los  Andes. 

6. 

Neuquen. 

It  should  be  added  that  all  Public  Acts  and  Judicial 
Decisions  of  one  Province  have  legal  effect  in  all  the  others. 
Sometimes,  however,  conflicts  of  jurisdiction  afford  matter 
for  the  decision  of  the  Federal  High  Court. 

Uruguay  is  divided  into  19  Departments,  each  of  which 
has  a  Governor  appointed  by  the  National  Executive  and 
an  administrative  Council  chosen  by  local  popular  vote. 
The  Departments  of  Uruguay  are  : 

Tucuarembo.  Treinta  y  tres. 

Cerro  Largo.  Soriano. 

Durazno.  Rio  Negro. 

Paysandu.  San  Jose. 

Salto.  Colonia. 

Minas.  Flores. 

Florida.  Maldonado. 

Artigas.  Canelones. 

Rocha.  Montevideo. 
Rivera. 


64  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

It  is  perhaps  not  convenient  here  to  discuss  the  com- 
parative advantages  of  the  two  systems  ;  but  it  must  be 
said  that  evidence  of  the  defects  inherent  to  the  quaHties 
of  both  is  not  lacking.  In  Argentina  the  Provinces  and  in 
Uruguay  the  National  Governments  have  frequently  shown 
and  still  show  a  disposition  to  make  ells  out  of  the  inches 
given  them  by  their  respective  constitutions. 

In  Argentina  this  disposition  was  considerably  scotched 
though  not  killed  by  the  Centralizing  policy  of  Dr.  Figueroa 
Alcorta,  the  immediate  predecessor  in  the  Presidential  chair 
of  the  recently  deceased  Dr.  Roque  Saenz  Peha.  Dr.  Alcorta's 
policy  was  fundamentally  good  and  was  carried  out  by  him 
with,  doubtless,  the  best  of  motives,  if  the  manner  of  its 
execution  was  rather  Gilbertian. 

The  evils  he  attacked  arose  from  the  fact  that  each  of  the 
more  distant  Provinces  was  practically  under  the  almost 
autocratic  domination  of  a  great  land-owning  family ;  the 
descendants,  usually,  of  the  lords  of  the  soil  in  the  patri- 
archal days  of  the  River  Plate  countries. 

In  those  Provinces  these  families  and  their  nearer  ramifi- 
cations formed  powerful  oligarchies  ;  ruling  over  people 
who  in  their  turn  were  the  descendants  of  those  who  in  by- 
gone days  had  been  little  else  than  the  vassals  of  the  Great 
House.  The  head  of  the  leading  family  was  the  Governor  of 
his  Province  by  an  almost  acknowledged  right  of  inheritance; 
while  his  sons,  nephews,  and  sons-in-law  occupied  the  chief 
posts  in  the  Provincial  Government. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  these  people  had,  in  measure 
as  the  National  Government  became  more  and  more  per- 
fected in  its  conduct  and  outlook,  become  an  insufferable 
obstacle  to  uniformity  of  ordered  conduct  of  public  affairs. 
Especially  was  this  so  in  financial  matters. 

The  outlying  and,  mostly,  poorer  Provinces  were  always 
needing,  or  at  any  rate  wanting,  money  ;  and  at  the  same 
time  not  over-nice  about  their  lack  of  unpledged  security 
when  they  found  a  European  financier,  as  untrammelled  by 


GOVERNMENT  65 

scruple  as  they  themselves,  willing  to  engineer  a  further 
Provincial  loan  under  the  independent  borrowing  powers 
given  by  the  Constitution  to  each  Province.  Some  of  them 
also  wished  to  continue  and  even  increase  the  issue  of  notes 
the  value  of  which  was  shockingly  depreciated,  and  which 
were  only  legal  tender  within  the  boundaries  of  the  particular 
Province.  Almost  in  vain,  the  National  Government  issued 
diplomatic  and  consular  circulars  to  the  effect  that  Pro- 
vincial loans  were  not  Argentine  National  loans,  and  that 
it,  the  National  Government,  would  only  hold  itself  re- 
sponsible for  the  latter.  The  financiers  who  floated  new 
Provincial  loans  were  well  aware  that  the  majority  of  those 
persons  whom  they  could  induce  to  take  up  such  bonds 
knew  little  or  nothing  of  the  distinction  between  National 
and  Provincial.  The  loan  was  an  Argentine  one  ;  puffed 
with  perfectly  true  statistics  of  the  progress  and  prosperity 
of  the  Argentine  Republic — without  too  much  insistence  on 
that  of  the  particular  Province  concerned.  Besides,  these 
financiers  and,  possibly,  some  of  their  clients  calculated  on 
the  extreme  probability  of  the  National  Government,  if  an 
awkward  situation  really  did  arise,  not  allowing  its  Pro- 
vinces to  be  declared  defaulters  in  Europe,  because  of 
the  consequent  slur  which  must  inevitably,  though  un- 
justly, fall  on  the  name  of  "  Argentina  "  ;  a  name  the 
credit  of  which  the  untiring  and  scrupulous  efforts  of 
the  National  Government  have  built  up  since  the  crisis 
of  1891. 

The  Provincial  Oligarchies  had  also  other  ways  of  jockey- 
ing the  National  Government.  They  would  ask  for  all  sorts 
of  things,  and  if  refused  would  proceed  to  rat  shamelessly  in 
the  Senate.  This  was  blackmail,  nothing  more  nor  less  ; 
but  frequently  effective,  since  Provincial  Governors  arc 
practically  always  members  of  the  National  Senate  ;  in 
which  the  President  must,  obviously,  have  a  majority  if  he 
is  to  carry  on  the  Government. 

Such  situations  Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta  determined  to  take 
5 


66  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

in  hand  ;  and  the  only  way  of  doing  this  was  to  break  up 
the  offending  Ohgarchies. 

Much  of  the  humour  of  his  doing  so  lay  in  the  fact  that  he 
owed  his  high  post  to  an  original  miscalculation  of  his  char- 
acter as  that  of  a  pleasant  enough  iigure-head  certain  to  be 
docile  in  the  hands  of  the  wire-pullers.  Therefore  he  was 
appointed  Vice-President  to  be  a  negligible  quantity  under 
the  Presidency  of  Dr.  Manuel  Quintana.  On  whose  death  he, 
ipso  facto,  under  the  Constitution,  became  acting  President 
for  the  remainder  of  Dr.  Quintana's  term  of  office.  The 
developments  of  Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta  were  as  much  a  sur- 
prise to  Argentine  politicians  as  were  those  of  Bret  Harte's 
"  Heathen  Chinee  "  to  his  associates  in  "  the  game  he  did 
not  understand."  And  realization  came  as  late  in  the  day  in 
the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 

A  veritable  epidemic  of  local  Revolutions  sprang  up  in  one 
after  the  other  of  the  oligarchically  ruled  Provinces.  On 
each  occasion  an  "  Interventor  "  was,  as  is  provided  by  the 
Constitution  for  such  cases,  sent  down  by  the  National 
Government  to  enquire  into  the  causes  of  the  disturbance, 
and  particularly  to  ascertain  if  the  Province  concerned  were 
being  ruled  "  in  accordance  with  the  Constitution  and  demo- 
cratic principles."  If  the  answer  to  this  last  question  were 
found  to  be  in  the  affirmative,  National  troops  could  be  sent 
down  to  support  the  existing  Provincial  Government ;  if  in 
the  negative,  the  ruling  party,  including,  of  course,  the 
Governor,  could  be  deposed  and  a  successor  appointed  by 
the  National  Government  in  his  stead. 

As  a  result  it  gradually  (but  not  till  it  was  very  nearly  all 
over)  dawned  on  the  general  intelligence  of  the  country  that 
the  Governors  who  had  been  found  to  have  ruled  their 
Provinces  "  in  accordance  with  the  constitution,  etc.,"  were 
faithful  supporters  of  the  Presidential  policy  ;  whilst  those 
who  had  been  deposed  for  misrule  happened,  strangely 
enough,  to  be  those  who  had  kicked  over,  or  shown  an  overt 
disposition  to  kick  over,  the  Presidential  traces. 


GOVERNMENT  67 

This  appealed  to  the  public  sense  of  humour  and  "  Revo- 
lucion  de  arriba  "  (Revolution  from  above,  i.e.  instigated  in 
high  quarters^)  became  a  catch  phrase.  Thus  were  the 
Oligarchies  brought  to  naught  and  the  central  power  greatly 
strengthened  thereby. 

Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta's  crowning  coup  d'etat  was,  however, 
his  shutting  Congress  out  of  its  own  Palace  in  consequence  of 
its  conspired  refusal  to  pass  one  of  his  budgets.  One  fine 
day,  the  National  Senators  and  Deputies  on  reaching  the 
Congress  building  found  it  in  possession  of  troops  who  refused 
them  admission.  Remonstrance  was  unavailing,  and  they 
perforce  returned  home.  Meanwhile,  the  President  passed 
the  Budget  himself,  as  the  Constitution  gives  him  power  to 
do  "  when  Congress  is  not  sitting." 

In  the  result  Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta's  Budget  (which  was  a 
perfectly  wise  and  necessary  one)  remained  operative  and 
the  officer  who  had  commanded  the  troops  was  heavily 
fined  for  disrespect  shown  to  the  sacred  offices  of  Senator 
and  Deputy.  The  gallant  officer's  plea  in  defence  that  the 
President  whose  orders  he  had  obeyed  on  that  occasion  was, 
as  constitutional  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Forces,  his 
Military  Superior,  availed  him  nothing.  Nobody  else  was 
one  penny  the  worse.  Possibly,  the  payment  of  Colonel 
Calazza's  fine  came  "  de  arriba  "  like  the  Revolutions. 

Soon  afterwards  Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta  was  the  courteous 
and  diplomatic  host  of  Personages  (including  the  Infanta 
Isabella)  at  the  1910  Centenary  Festivities ;  and,  shortly 
after  that  again,  vacated  the  Presidential  chair  in  favour  of 
Dr.  Saenz  Peiia,  his  successor  "  by  consent."  The  usual 
and  graceful,  though  officially  unacknowledged,  custom  in 
Argentina  being  that  the  Presidential  Election  shall  follow 
a  prearranged  course.  ^ 

^  Dr.  Leopoldo  del  Campo,  a  high  authority  on  Argentine  Constitu- 
tional Law,  once  publicly  stated  that  Provincial  revolutions  were  some- 
times stimulated  by  superior  influences,  with  the  idea  of  provoking  the 
Presidential  intervention. 

*  A  present  breach  of  this  custom  has  already  been  referred  to. 


68  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

With  the  matter  of  elections  Dr.  Saenz  Pena's  name  is,  as 
has  been  said,  intimately  and  honourably  associated,  and  it 
may  be  repeated  that  by  his  death  the  Republic  lost  one  of 
its  most  broad-minded  and  straightforward  statesmen. 

Up  to  the  passing  of  his  Electoral  Reform  Law,  no  self- 
respecting  private  citizen  ever  dreamed  of  voting  :  simply 
because  if  he  favoured  the  Government  policy  his  doing  so 
would  be  a  mere  work  of  supererogation,  while  if  he  held 
opposition  views  it  would  be  sheer  waste  of  time  and  trouble 
on  his  part ;  and  if  he  were  a  provincial  voter  he  would 
certainly  find  himself  the  object  of  unpleasant  attention  by 
the  police,  whose  really  chief  duty  was  to  "  conduct  " 
elections  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  ruling  party.  Anyhow, 
his  voting  could  not  influence  the  preordained  result  of  the 
election  one  way  or  the  other.  Voting  was  done  by  the  mere 
deposit  of  a  "  Libreta  "  or  certificate  of  citizenship,  and 
libretas  deposited  in  favour  of  the  ruling  party  were  subject 
to  little  scrutiny  as  to  whether  the  persons  named  in  them 
were  alive  or  dead.  They  were  thrown  in  at  the  polling 
stations  in  bundles.  Some  were  bought ;  though  at  a  low 
figure,  because  there  were  thousands  of  blank  Ubretas  at 
Government  House  ready  to  be  filled  in  by  quick-writing 
clerks  in  the  very  remote  event  of  any  booth  being  reported 
to  have  received  a  disconcerting  number  of  votes  adverse 
to  the  Government. 

In  the  Provinces  the  proceedings  were  rougher  and 
readier  ;  the  comparative  smallness  of  the  communities 
enabling  the  Police  Commissary  to  know  the  political  views 
of  all  persons  in  his  district.  Did  a  would-be  opponent  of 
the  ruling  powers  heave  in  sight,  he  was  hustled  as  if  to  make 
room  for  others  who  had  arrived  before  him,  and  if  he  were 
still  foolish  enough  to  persist  in  trying  to  vote  he  was  arrested 
for  making  a  disturbance,  and  locked  up  till  the  election  was 
over.  The  Provincial  Police  Authorities  could  hardly  be 
blamed  for  their  share  in  this  scandal,  because  the  successful 
conduct  of  elections  was  really  a  sine  qua  non  condition  of 


GOVERNMENT  69 

their  tenure  of  office.  Failure  meant  for  them  being  almost 
immediately  superseded. 

In  Uruguay,  no  matter  whether  Reds  or  Whites  (the  two 
great  political  parties)  were  in  power,  the  rural  population, 
the  true  backbone  of  the  agricultural  country,  were  per- 
ennially in  opposition  :  because  they  found  that  the  atmo- 
sphere of  the  capital  somehow  or  another  always  infected 
their  rulers  with  ideas  of  government  which,  however 
splendid  they  might  be  in  theory,  were  more  often  than  not 
quite  out  of  harmony  with,  and  often  contradictory  to, 
practical  agricultural  needs  and  conditions. 

Thus,  to  cite  an  instance  often  referred  to  in  this  regard,  it 
is  not  long  since  a  German  agricultural  expert,  specially  im- 
ported with  the  best  of  intentions  by  the  Government, 
showed  them  that  wheat  allowed  to  mature  for  a  while  in 
stacks  had  a  greater  commercial  value  in  Europe  than  that 
thrashed  simultaneously  with  reaping  and  shipped  immedi- 
ately. This  is,  in  itself,  undeniable  fact  ;  from  which,  how- 
ever, the  Uruguayan  Government  drew  the  conclusion  that 
it  would  be  well  to  pass  a  law  making  it  obligatory,  under 
penalty  for  not  doing  so,  on  every  farmer  in  the  country  to 
stack  all  his  wheat  for  a  certain  period  before  sending  it  for 
export.  This  proposal  naturally  raised  an  outcry  throughout 
the  country.  Because  a  practice  which  presents  little 
practical  inconvenience  and  much  advantage  in  an  European 
country,  where  small  wheat  fields  and  a  more  or  less  damp 
climate  are  the  rule,  would  be  monstrously  ridiculous  in  a 
land  where  grain  is  grown  by  the  square  league,  and  where, 
accidents  of  weather  apart,  the  standing  crops  are  well 
dried  by  the  sun.  Just  imagine  the  enormous  expense  in- 
volved in  stacking  wheat  over  such  vast  areas  as  are  covered 
by  cereals  in  the  River  Plate  countries.  In  which  countries, 
moreover,  the  greatest  of  all  difficulties  in  the  way  of  pro- 
duction is  the  scarcity  of  labour  !  The  stacking  method 
would  cost  vastly  more  than  the  difference  in  the  value 
between  stacked  and  unstacked  grain. 


70  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Needless  to  say,  this  brilliantly  conceived  law  was  never 
passed  ;  but  the  idea  of  it  stands  as  an  example  of  the 
doctrinaire  tendencies  of  Montevidean  statesmen  of  which 
the  rural  industries  complain. 

That  there  is  a  mysterious  something  in  the  air  of  Monte- 
video which  influences  men  in  the  direction  of  abstract 
idealism,  and  at  the  same  time  Winds  them  to  facts  which 
their  cherished  theories  will  not  fit,  seems  undeniable.  But 
it  is  unlikely  that  Uruguay  will  ever  again  be  plunged  into 
the  ruinous  throes  of  Revolution. 

Once  the  leaders  of  Uruguayan  opinion  grasped  the  fact 
that  Revolution  is  the  greatest  possible  impediment  to  the 
best  interests  of  the  country,  the  peaceful  future  of  the 
Republic  was  assured  ;  and  they  now  seem  to  have  grasped 
it  clearly  and  firmly. 

State  insurance,  State  railways,  State  tramways,  water 
and  gas  works,  electrical  power  stations  and,  in  fact.  State 
everything  was  Sefior  Bathe's ^  plan  for  holding  Uruguay 
up  to  the  world  as  a  splendid  object-lesson  in  State  Socialism. 
Here  again  one  sees  the  fire  of  patriotism  gleaming  through 
a  mass  of  practical  difficulties  (the  obtaining  of  necessary 
capital  for  the  purpose,  and  on  the  necessary  conditions  of 
the  execution  of  such  splendid  plans,  for  instance)  in  the 
way  of  the  accomplishment  of  the  President's  dream. 

Equally  patriotic  were  those  who  endeavoured  to  keep  the 
brakes  well  pressed  on  to  the  wheels  of  the  "  progressive  " 
Presidential  car ;  hoping  for  the  conclusion  of  Sefior 
Batlle  y  Ordofiez's  term  of  office  before  too  much  harm 
were  done.  But,  mark  this,  not  a  sign  of  overt  rebellion 
in  a  situation  over  which  only  a  few  years  ago  the 
whole  country  would  have  been  engaged  in  a  fratricidal 
struggle. 

Sefior  Batlle  y  Ordonez  was  an  autocratic  democrat ; 
desiring  and  firmly,  even  obstinately,  determined,  to  rule  as 

^  Sefior  Batlle  has  now  been  succeeded  in  the  Presidential  chair  by 
Dr.  Viera,  formerly  his  very  able  Minister  of  Finance. 


GOVERNMENT  71 

absolutely  as  any  Tsar  in  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  true 
interests  of  all  classes  of  the  population. 

The  present  writer  well  remembers  hearing  him,  on  the 
first  day  of  the  great  general  strike  of  191 1,  addressing  the 
strikers  from  the  balcony  of  Government  House  at  Monte- 
video. 

He  told  them  that  were  it  not  for  his  high  office  he  would 
be  among  them  and  with  them  ;  counselled  them  to  stand 
firmly  for  their  rights  ;  and  wound  up  with  a  warning  that 
any  acts  of  intimidation  or  violence  on  their  part  would  not 
only  injure  their  just  cause,  but  expose  the  guilty  parties  to 
extremely  severe  punishment. 

By  way  of  underlining  this  last  wholesome  admonition. 
Martial  Law  was  immediately  declared,  and  the  next  day 
saw  the  town  filled  with  Horse,  Foot  and  Artillery.  This 
move  (which  caused  some  doubt  in  the  mind  of  the  extreme 
Labour  Party  as  to  which  way  the  Presidential  wind  was 
really  blowing),  and  the  fact  that  the  flags,  illuminations  and 
firework  installations  were  already  nailed  up  for  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Centenary  of  Artigas,  the  National  Hero, 
whose  memory  has  of  late  years  been  completely  white- 
washed by  the  National  Historians,  caused  the  strike  to 
fizzle  out  and  all  hands  to  join,  a  day  or  two  later,  in  festivi- 
ties the  brilliance  of  which  confirmed  the  reputation  of  the 
Montevideans  as  past  masters  of  artistic  illumination. 

The  only  net  result  of  the  strike  appeared  to  be  the  fining, 
in  the  strict  terms  of  its  concession,  of  the  Montevideo 
Tramways  Company  for  neglecting  to  run  cars  according  to 
schedule  during  a  period  when  it  was  physically  impossible 
for  it  to  have  done  so.  "When  no  bread  was  baked  and  even 
doctors  were  forced  by  the  strike  leaders  to  abandon  the  use 
of  their  carriages  ;  when,  in  fact,  the  whole  city  kept  a 
sabbath  during  which  no  man  might  do  any  manner  of  work, 
A  state  of  things  enforced  by  patrols  of  strikers  armed  with 
revolvers — until  the  troops  of  their  friend  the  President 
suddenly  appeared  upon  the  scene. 


72  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Of  both  Argentina  and  Uruguay  it  may  be  said  that  their 
Constitutions,  Laws  (National  and  Provincial)  and  Municipal 
by-laws  and  regulations  are  as  nearly  perfect  models  of 
what  such  things  should  be  as  can  well  be  imagined.  If 
they  were  not  sometimes  honoured  in  the  breach  of  them  and 
if  isolated  provisions  were  not  sometimes  hauled  out  to  meet 
cases  pretty  obviously  not  exactly  contemplated  by  their 
framers,  all  would  be  even  better  in  lands  where,  on  the 
whole,  Laws  and  Regulations,  as  occasionally  varied  by  tacit 
custom,  generally  work  very  well  indeed.  Such  custom,  it 
should  be  noted  here,  is  not,  however,  altogether  reliable  and 
would  be  useless  as  a  defence  in  the  frequently  recurring 
event  of  some  Authority  or  other,  perhaps  piqued  by  an 
ambition  to  distinguish  itself  or  to  be  revenged  on  a  torpid 
liver,  suddenly  insisting  on  the  observance  of  the  strict 
letter  of  the  law.  In  that  case,  several  unsuspecting  people 
get  fined  ;  journalists  are  inspired  for  paragraphs  and  even 
articles  ;  a,  say,  three  days'  wonder  is  created  ;  and  custom 
resumes  her  sway  until  the  next  temporary  upheaval. 

The  writer  once  lived  in  a  district  of  Argentina  where,  as 
elsewhere  in  that  country,  all  dairy  farmers  must,  under 
penalty,  use  milk  cans  duly  certified  and  marked  by  the 
Authority  appointed  for  that  purpose,  as  being  according  to 
standard  measure.  A  fee  is  payable  on  each  can  so  certified. 
One  day,  being  in  a  curious  mood,  one  not  uncommon  in 
journalists,  he  asked  Authority  to  show  him  the  standard 
measures.  The  latter,  a  good  fellow,  was  pleased  to  consider 
the  writer  as  another  ;  so  he  laughed  and  said  he  had  never 
seen  nor  asked  to  have  such  a  thing.  He  knew  that  all  these 
milk-cans  were  turned  out  accurately  enough  by  the  manu- 
facturers. So  what  was  the  use  of  bothering  further  ?  He 
just  marked  them  and  took  the  fee. 

Some  day,  he  or  his  successor  or  a  colleague  of  some  other 
district,  will  be  caught  by  some  Higher  Authority  in  a  fit  of 
zeal  and  made  an  example  of.  Someone  will  get  a  profitable 
contract   to   furnish   Standard   milk-cans   throughout   the 


GOVERNMENT  73 

Republic,  these  will  duly  get  lost  or  be  appropriated  by 
Authority's  wife  for  household  purposes,  and  dairymen's 
cans  will  be  certified  on  sight  as  before. 

It  is  only  just  to  say  that  this  story  is  rather  illustrative  of 
Argentine  life  than  Uruguayan :  the  Uruguayan  generally 
takes  more  strict  a  view  of  his  duties  and  obligations  than 
his  over-river  cousin. 

But  to  return  to  our  subject.  Generally  speaking,  and 
especially  in  Argentina  with  its  Provincial  Autonomy,  the 
further  one  journeys  from  the  National  Capital  the  slacker 
and  more  irregular  one  finds  the  administration  of  Laws  and 
By-Laws,  the  greater  the  resemblance  of  the  manners  and 
methods  of  Authority  to  that  of  the  Kadi  under  a  palm  tree. 
And  the  more  one  realizes  the  truth  of  the  proverb  that  while 
one  man  may  steal  a  horse  another  may  not  look  over  a  gate. 
In  country  districts  personal  influence  is  wellnigh  every- 
thing. If  one  be  on  good  terms  with  the  Municipal  In- 
tendente  (Mayor)  or  the  Comisario  of  Police  (it  is  generally  a 
case  of  being  friendly,  if  at  all,  with  both  and  the  other 
members  of  the  official  clique  ;  all  usually  to  be  found  to- 
gether in  the  same  bar  or  restaurant),  the  law  looks  very 
indulgently  on  one,  and  at  a  pinch  will  turn  a  blind  eye  to 
one's,  really  only  humorous,  peccadillos.  If  not,  one  must 
walk  carefully  like  Agag  until  one  has  gathered  common 
sense  enough  to  approach  Authority  in  a  properly  friendly 
(and  acceptable)  spirit. 

Does  the  Comisario's  horse  go  lame,  he  will  ask  you  to 
lend  him  one.  You  do  so,  saying  at  the  same  time  that  you 
have  no  further  need  of  it.  And  the  next  time  you  have 
trouble  with  your  peons,  or  anyone  else  with  less  influence 
than  yourself,  send  for  the  Comisario,  he  will  soon  straighten 
the  matter  out  for  you.  Even  if  your  trouble  be  with  an 
equal  or  superior  in  influence,  smiling  Authority  will  dis- 
cover a  modus  vivcndi  and  drinks  all  round  will  seal  the 
friendly  compact.  It  is  seldom  one  meets  anyone  who  is  not 
on  good  terms  with  his  Authorities.    Not  to  be  so  would 


74  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

remind  one  of  the  story  of  Camot,  who  refused  to  stand  in 
with  Napoleon  I.  The  Emperor  told  him  frankly  that  he 
who  was  not  with  him  was  against  him,  and  that  he,  Camot, 
was  much  too  powerful  a  person  with  the  people  to  be 
permitted  to  be  at  large  in  France  under  the  latter 
condition.  He  must  be  exiled,  and  had  better  see  Fouche 
on  the  matter. 

Camot  went ;  and,  addressing  Fouch6,  asked  sternly, 
"  Where  must  I  go  ?  Traitor  !  "  "  Wherever  you  like. 
Imbecile  !  "  was  Fouche's  cynical  retort. 

So,  in  Argentine  rural  ethics,  if  you  are  not  friendly  with 
Authority  you  have  only  your  own  folly  to  thank  for  the 
usually  inconvenient  consequences. 

It  is  wonderful  how  much  money  Authority  has  to  spend 
on  amusement  when  it  gets  a  day  or  two's  holiday  in  Buenos 
Aires  ;  and  it  is  great  fun  as  well  as  good  policy  to  go  round 
with  him,  if  you  also  are  in  funds.  Argentine  Authority 
seldom  gives  or  expects  anything  for  nothing  ;  but  usually 
is  a  pleasant  enough  fellow  withal,  if  taken  the  right  way. 

The  Uruguayan,  in  such  regards  as  in  all  others,  is  a  less 
sophisticated  and,  in  country  districts,  a  more  primitively 
minded  person  ;  though  always  hospitable,  usually  courteous 
in  his  manner,  and  particularly  so  to  strangers. 

The  most  exalted  Governmental  spheres,  those  of  the 
National  Governments  in  the  Cities  of  Buenos  Aires  and 
Montevideo,  respectively,  are  nowadays  almost  entirely  free 
from  any  suggestion  of  the  mildest  form  of  even  technical 
corruption.  It  certainly  is  easier  to  obtain  a  personal  inter- 
view with  the  President  or  a  Minister  if  one  personally  knows 
one  of  his  intimate  friends  or  subordinate  officials  ;  but  that 
is  all  that  influence  really  amounts  to  as  regards  any  question 
affecting  overseas  Commerce,  Concessions  or  Foreign  Affairs. 
In  regard  to  home  politics,  doubtless  a  good  deal  of  intrigue 
is  constantly  at  work  at  Government  House  in  Buenos  Aires, 
but  those  are  matters  which  the  foreign  settler  leaves  ex- 
clusively to  the  Argentines  themselves.    So  long  as  they  do 


GOVERNMENT  75 

nothing  which  may  affect  trade  or  credit,  even  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  largest  foreign  interests  are  careful  to  avoid 
any  act  or  word  which  might  savour  of  interference  in  the 
sole  management  by  the  Argentine  of  purely  Argentine 
affairs.  As  has  been  indicated  elsewhere  in  these  pages,  such 
interference  is  the  one  thing  regarding  which  the  Argentine 
is  very  jealously  suspicious.  He  may  have  framed  most  of 
his  Constitution  on  that  of  the  United  States,  but  he  never 
would  have  permitted  the  States  or  anyone  else  to  do  it  for 
him. 

Apart  from  the  transparent  incorruptibility,  from  without, 
at  all  events,  of  all  members  of  the  National  Governments  of 
both  Republics,  there  is  a  pleasant  free-and-easiness  about 
the  manner  of  Presidential  and  Ministerial  receptions. 

The  salons  in  which  all-comers  are  received  are  large,  airy 
and  well  lighted  ;  and  are  furnished  with  leather-covered 
sofas,  seated  on  which  visitors  wait  their  turn  for  the 
President  or  Minister  to  grant  them  a  few  words  of  con- 
versation ;  during  which  his  Excellency  sits  down  on  the 
sofa  beside  them,  cigarette  in  hand  like  everyone  else  in  the 
room. 

At  a  longer,  special,  conference,  coffee  also  is  served,  hot 
in  winter  and  iced  in  summer,  even  in  the  offices  of  sub- 
ordinate officials  ;  and  rumour  has  it  that  it  is  over  this  in- 
exhaustible supply  of  Nationally  provided  coffee  and 
cigarettes  that  internal  politics  are  "  made."  In  Argentina 
politics  of  this  kind  are  kaleidoscopic ;  groups  and  individuals 
forming  fresh  combinations  and  antagonisms  too  rapidly  and 
from  too  deeply  underlying  motives  for  anyone  not  pro- 
foundly versed  and  continually  engaged  in  the  game  to  be 
able  to  follow  it  with  anything  approaching  comprehension. 

Much  of  this  has  doubtless  disappeared  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Dr.  Saenz  Peiia ;  whose  fearlessly  honourable 
nature  judged,  and  judged  rightly,  that  the  National  Govern- 
ment of  Argentina  is  now  in  a  position  to  face  without  appre- 
hension any  pubhc  opinion  of  its  acts  and  policy. 


76  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Naturally  the  spirit  of  intrigue,  the  love  of  which,  almost 
for  itself,  has  roots  deep  down  in  Argentine  human  nature, 
cannot  yet  be  reckoned  as  dead  ;  but  it  is  certainly  in  the 
course  of  being  driven  further  and  further  away  from  the 
centres  of  higher  civilization  by  a  superior  ethical  conception 
of  the  duties  of  Government ;  even  as  the  long-homed 
native  cattle  have  been  ousted  to  frontier  districts  by  the 
appreciation  by  Estancieros  of  the  incomparable  advan- 
tages, to  themselves,  of  Shorthorns  and  Herefords. 

In  Uruguay  there  always  has  been  much  less  tendency  to 
intrigue.  There,  a  man  was  a  Red  or  a  White,  a  conscientious 
supporter  of  the  Rural  or  Urban  party.  While  as  for  Finance 
the  Commercial  Community  has  always  and  unswervingly 
seen  to  it  that  its  realm  be  kept  clean  and  untarnished  by 
even  the  breath  of  scandal.  It  may  here  be  objected  that 
now  and  again,  foreign  concessionaires  have  made  bargains 
with  the  National  Government  strangely  profitable  to  them- 
selves. The  true  answer  to  such  an  observation  would  be 
that  in  such  cases  the  Government  has  invariably  been  the 
quite  innocent  victim  of  greater  experience  and  far-sighted- 
ness in  such  matters  than  its  own  advisers  had  ever  had 
opportunity  to  attain. 

Uruguayans  would  maintain  the  National  credit  by  empty- 
ing their  own  private  pockets  if  need  be  and,  in  fact,  have 
expressed  their  intention  of  doing  so  on  more  than  one 
occasion  when,  as  is  mentioned  in  another  chapter,  the 
Government  allowed  itself  to  be  frightened  into  proposals 
for  issues  of  paper  currency  not  founded  on  a  strictly  gold 
basis.  A  proceeding  which  would  have  spelt  repudiation  of 
a  portion  of  the  National  liabilities  ;  in  the  manner  of  the 
Argentine  "  Conversion  Law." 

The  proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating.  And  it  is  no 
sign  of  bias  to  give  Uruguay  credit  for  plain  facts  which 
incontrovertibly  prove  her  sense  of  the  sanctity  of  moral 
as  well  as  legal  obligation. 

True,  she  was  never  in  quite  such  a  financial  tangle  as 


GOVERNMENT  77 

that  in  which  Argentina  found  herself  in  i8gi  ;  but  she 
has  often  been  poverty-stricken,  and  yet  has  always  paid 
to  the  utmost  centesimo. 

Generally,  it  may  be  said  that  a  similar  honesty  prevails 
in  all  branches  of  Government  and  fiscal  affairs  throughout 
Uruguay. 

For  a  glance  at  some  small  ways  that  are  dark  and  tricks 
that  are  vain,  before  these  are  entirely  swept  away,  as  they 
now  are  being,  before  the  healthy  wind  of  moral  improve- 
ment (healthy  even  though,  as  some  cynics  assert,  it  has  been 
raised  only  by  perception  of  the  fact  that  in  the  long  run, 
honesty  is  the  best  policy)  one  must  go  to  distant  parts  of 
Argentina  and  there  grope  amid  the  intricacies  of  Provincial 
and  Municipal  Administration.  There,  undoubtedly,  we 
may  come  across  semi-obscure  comers  from  which  a  highly 
respectable  chartered  accountant  would  fly  horror-stricken. 
But  we  should  also  recognize  that  the  whole  small  fabric  of 
intrigue  and  petty  robbery  is  a  Punchinello's  secret ;  well 
known  to  and  sympathetically  approved  by  the  whole  sur- 
rounding populace,  whose  attitude  to  the  robber  is  that  of 
"  Good  luck  to  him  !  I  should  do  the  same  if  I  had  his 
chance."  Of  no  use  to  endeavour  to  stir  up  public  opinion 
to  demand  the  prosecution  or  dismissal  of  Authorities  or 
Officials  who  are  perfectly  well  known  to  have  been  defraud- 
ing the  public  for  years. 

Not  a  bit  of  it.  You  would  on'ly  get  for  an  answer,  "  What  ? 
get  rid  of  him  now  that  he's  fat  and  get  a  lean  one  in  his  place 
who  would  be  far  worse  !  "  Meaning  that  a  needy  man 
would  steal  more  than  a  rich  one.  Local  opinion  would  hold 
that  that  way  lay  madness  only  ;  and  the  would-be  reformer 
would  be  merely  regarded  with  pitying  scorn. 

No.  The  change  is  coming  and  coming  rapidly  with  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  and  cannot  be  hastened  in  its  inevitable 
course  ;  and  this  change  will  be  thorough,  for  it  will  only 
encounter  the  ineffectual  opposition  of  a  quite  infantile  dis- 
honesty which  has  never  seriously  tried  to  keep  secret  the 


78  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

practices  which  its  vanity  considered  as  so  much  evidence  of 
its  own  admirable  cleverness. 

Do  you  think  the  milk-can  inspector  did  not  delight  in 
telling  that  he  had  never  seen  a  standard  measure  ?  Of 
course  he  did ;  and  a  Municipal  Intendente  of  a  small  country 
town  gets  just  as  much  pleasure  from  the  knowledge  that, 
while  ten  men  appear  on  his  Municipality's  monthly  wage- 
sheets  as  road-menders,  there  are  in  fact  only  two  and  the 
remaining  eight  receipts  are  signed,  for  a  consideration,  per 
signature,  by  independent  persons.  A  proceeding  which,  of 
course,  is  perfectly  well  known  to  and  indeed  accepted  as 
immemorial  custom  by  the  general  public.  In  these  cases 
no  one  ever  gets  caught ;  because  those  chiefly  concerned 
have  always  a  pull  in  Provincial  politics — otherwise  they 
would  never  have  found  themselves  occupying  the  positions 
they  are  in. 

But,  as  the  reader  can  see,  all  these  are  childish  things  ; 
already  vanishing  and  soon  to  be  completely  put  away  by 
the  general  and  swift  advance,  moral  as  well  as  material, 
of  the  Republic. 


CHAPTER  VI 
MONTEVIDEO   AND   BUENOS  AIRES 

MONTEVIDEO,  the  first  discovered  point  of  the 
River  Plate  countries,  is  also  the  first  stopping- 
place  for  passenger  boats  from  Europe  ;  and  if  the 
traveller  from  thence  be  in  no  immediate  hurry  to  reach 
Buenos  Aires  he  might  do  much  worse  than  spend,  say  a 
week,  in  the  clean,  cool,  pleasant  capital  of  La  Republica 
DE  LA  Banda  Oriental  del  Uruguay. 

Leaving  his  baggage  to  be  sent  for  later,  he  will  walk,  or 
take  convenient  tram,  from  the  harbour  up  the  fairly  steep 
incline  of  a  narrow  street  and  find  himself  at  a  corner  of  the 
ancient  Plaza  of  the  City  ;  the  Plaza  with  History  repre- 
sented on  two  of  its  sides,  to  his  right  and  left  respectively, 
by  the  Cathedral  and  the  old  Congress  buildings.  Facing 
him,  he  will  see  modernity  embodied  in  the  palatial  Club 
Uruguayo,  while  immediately  on  his  left  hand,  at  his  back, 
is  a  little  front  door  and  staircase  leading  to  the  comfortable 
and  hospitable  English  club. 

The  middle  of  the  square  is  occupied  by  fine  subtropical 
and  other  plants  surrounding  a  band-stand  from  which  very 
sweet  music  indeed  proceeds  at  night  in  the  summer-time  ; 
which,  including  Spring  and  Autumn,  lasts  for  nine  months 
of  the  year. 

Afterwards,  he  will  find  his  way  to  the  Plaza  Independencia 
on  one  side  of  which  is  Government  House,  and  almost  be- 
hind which  is  Montevideo's  Opera  House,  the  Soler  Theatre. 
Later  he  can  visit  Pocitos,  Ramirez  and  other  delightful, 
white-sanded    bathing   beaches,    with   which    Montevideo 

79 


80  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

abounds ;  for  this  city  on  a  hill  occupies  a  small  peninsula 
which  juts  out  just  where  the  estuary  of  the  River  merges 
into  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

All  the  streets  leading  from  three  sides  of  the  old  Plaza  go 
downhill  to  the  sea  ;  and  up  one  parallel  set  or  another  of 
them  comes  a  fresh  breeze  at  all  times  of  the  day  and  night 
and  at  all  seasons  of  the  year.  One  seldom  or  never  suffers 
in  Montevideo  from  the  stifling  oppression  sometimes  so 
painful  in  the  dog-days  of  Buenos  Aires. 

With  so  many  natural  advantages,  it  can  be  readily  under- 
stood that  Montevideo  has  an  ambition  and  that  that 
ambition  should  be  to  become  the  seaside  resort  of  South 
America. 

Towards  the  realization  of  this  desire  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  Municipality  spare  no  expense  at  all 
commensurate  with  their  means.  Fine  broad  motor  drives 
and  promenades  run,  or  are  being  constructed  to  run,  all 
round  the  three  water-bound  sides  which,  by  the  test  of 
school  geographies,  indicate  a  true  peninsula. 

Gaily  striped  bathing  tents  can  be  hired  by  the  hour,  day, 
week  or  season  on  what  have  just  been  said  to  be  delightful 
soft,  warm,  sandy  beaches.  To  come  out  of  the  water  and 
roll  oneself  dry  in  this  fine  clean  sand  is  an  experience  not  to 
be  missed  and  certainly  to  be  remembered,  apart  from  its 
proclaimed  virtues  as  a  sovereign  cure  for  rheumatism. 

That  malady  must,  however,  surely  be  an  imported  article ; 
one  does  not  naturally  associate  it  with  the  bright  dry 
climate  of  Montevideo. 

Municipal  bands,  good  operatic  and  dramatic  companies 
are  added  lures  for  holiday-makers  of  the  wealthier  class 
from  neighbouring  Republics  ;  while  Montevideo  sustains 
the  ancient  custom  of  keeping  carnival,  masked  and  with 
illuminations,  flower-throwing  and  costumed  corsos,  in  a 
fashion  which  entirely  throws  into  the  shade  the  now 
moribund  carnival  of  Buenos  Aires. 

At  Montevideo,  all  is  done  to  please  and  nothing  to  annoy, 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AIRES     81 

so  that  the  throwing  of  water  which  was  a  leading  feature  of 
the  old-time  carnival  is  now  strictly  prohibited  by  authority 
enforced  by  the  police  ;   as  is  also  the  case  in  Buenos  Aires. 

Thousands  of  people  cross  each  year  from  Buenos  Aires 
for  the  Montevideo  carnival,  the  whole  available  fleet  of  the 
company  which  runs  luxurious  boats  between  the  two  cities 
are  pressed  into  the  service  of  this  occasion  and  become 
floating  hotels  ;  the  normal  hotel  accommodation  of  Monte- 
video being  insufhcient  to  meet  such  an  influx  of  visitors 
during  these  few  days. 

By  the  way,  the  origin  of  this  fine  steamboat  service  is  an 
interesting  example  of  the  progress  made  by  the  two  countries 
and  the  fortunes  which  have  been  amassed  in  them  during 
existing  lifetimes. 

Before  the  building  of  the  present  dock  system  of  Buenos 
Aires,  one  of  the  boatmen  who  used  to  land  and  embark 
passengers  from  or  on  the  ocean-going  ships  was  a  man 
named  Nicolas  Mihanovich  ;  evidently  a  very  level-headed 
and  at  that  time  at  least,  a  very  frugal  and  saving  person 
indeed. 

With  his  row-boat  he  gained  sufficient  to  enable  him  to 
purchase  a  sailing  vessel  which  he  used  for  regular  traffic  to 
and  fro  across  the  broad  mouth  of  the  River  Plate.  So,  his 
enterprise  grew  ;  and  only  a  very  few  years  ago  he  turned 
his  own  private  company  into  a  public  one  with  larger  aims, 
in  which  latter  company  he  nevertheless  retains  a  very  large 
interest.  The  one-time  boatman  is  now  a  multi-millionaire. 
The  present  service  leaves  Buenos  Aires,  or  Montevideo  as 
the  case  may  be,  at  about  ten  o'clock  each  evening  and 
lands  its  passengers,  after  a  good  sleep  in  comfortable 
beds,  on  the  other  side  at  about  seven  o'clock  the  following 
morning. 

Many  are  the  true  tales  of  fortunes  amassed,  sometimes 
one  may  almost  say  won,  in  Argentina,  especially,  within 
living  memory. 

Sehor  Santamarina,  now  deceased,  left  on  his  huge  estate  at 
6 


82  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Tandi'l,  one  of  his  many  properties,  the  original  two-wheeled 
high  cart  which  was  his  only  fortune  when  he  commenced 
life  as  what  in  other  countries  would  be  called  a  transport 
rider.  This  cart  is,  or  till  recently  was,  preserved  in  a  glass 
house  erected  specially  by  him  to  house  and  exhibit  it  to  all 
visitors  to  the  estancia. 

Another  history  is  that  of  a  millionaire  family  whose 
immediate  ancestor  certainly  won  fortune  by  an  astuteness 
which  may  or  may  not  be  considered  commendable. 

He  rented  a  large — large  even  for  the  Argentina  of  those 
roomy  days — tract  of  land  from  a  man  who  foresaw  wealth 
in  tree-planting.  The  latter  was  right ;  but  his  personal 
calculations  did  not,  as  will  be  seen,  turn  out  as  he  had 
planned.  He  made  it  a  condition  that  not  less  than  a  certain 
number  of  trees  should  be  planted  on  the  land  within  the 
period  of  the  lease,  and  that  for  every  tree  above  that 
number  planted  he  should,  on  the  termination  of  the  lease, 
pay  the  sum  of  $i  to  the  outgoing  tenant. 

The  wily  lessee  immediately  set  to  work  to  plant  trees  as 
fast  as  ever  he  could,  and  at  the  expiration  of  his  lease 
had  millions  of  them,  over  and  above  the  stipulated 
number,  to  show  for  his  pains.  The  unfortunate  lessor  could 
not  pay  so  many  million  dollars,  and  to  end  the  affair  was 
glad  to  let  his  former  lessee  have  full  freehold  possession  of 
the  land  and  so  call  quits. 

That  land,  still  in  the  possession  of  the  original  lessee's 
family,  is  worth  a  huge  fortune  to-day,  and  its  produce 
represents  a  very  large  income  indeed — forestry  apart. 

And  now,  as  these  stories  have  taken  us  to  Argentina,  the 
reader  may  as  well  prepare  to  follow  them  by  embarking  on 
one  of  the  "  Mihanovich  "  boats  ;  as  they  still  are  and 
probably  always  will  be  called,  in  spite  of  the  longer  name 
of  the  new  company,  and  find  himself  in  Buenos  Aires  next 
morning. 

By  leaving  his  baggage  for  further  consideration,  as  he  did 
at  Montevideo,  he  can  go  on  foot  in  about  five  minutes  from 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AIRES     83 

the  landing-place  across  the  gardens  of  the  Paseo  de  Julio, 
which  name  is  a  first  reminiscence  of  the  birth  of  the  Re- 
public, round  one  or  the  other  side  of  the  "  Casa  Rosada  " 
or  pink-coloured  Government  House,  and  find  himself 
immediately  in  the  Plaza  Victoria  with  on  his  right  the  Stock 
Exchange  lying  between  the  Calles  25  de  Mayo  and  San 
Martin — further  reminiscences  of  the  wars  of  Liberty. 
Keeping  his  back  towards  the  Casa  Rosada,  he  will  look 
straight  up  the  broad  Avenida  de  Mayo  with  the  historic  old 
Cabildo  or  Town  Hall  on  the  left  corner  of  the  commence- 
ment of  the  avenue  and  the  fine  new  Municipality  opposite. 

At  the  far  end  of  the  avenue  rises  the  splendid  edifice  of 
the  new  Congress  Building,  the  "  Palace  of  Gold  "  as  it  is 
called  in  quasi-humorous  reference  to  its  costliness.  This 
is,  however,  not  a  new  joke.  Formerly  it  was  applied  to  the 
Casa  Rosada,  now  become  a  comparatively  humble  edifice. 
Besides,  if  an  Argentine  calls  one's  attention  to  the  scandalous 
cost  of  a  public  monument  or  building,  it  does  not  necessarily 
mean  that  he  is  really  so  very  angry  about  it.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  may  well  be  that  he  is  proud  of  belonging  to  a 
Nation  which  can  bravely  bear  such  expenditure. 

Under  the  Avenida  de  Mayo  is  the  "  tube  "  which  runs 
from  the  Once  station  (which  is  situate  on  the  western  side 
of  the  town  and  is  the  terminus  of  the  Buenos  Aires  Western 
Railway)  to  the  Docks.  The  Once  marks  the  point  of  de- 
parture of  the  first  six  miles  of  Railway  built  on  the  River 
Plate. 

The  new-comer  will  at  once  notice  that  the  City  of  Buenos 
Aires  is  laid  out  on  the  chessboard  pattern  with  its  streets 
running  North  and  South  and  East  and  West,  a  variation  of 
the  pattern  being  now  introduced  by  the  new  diagonal 
avenues  converging  towards  the  Plaza  Victoria,  in  course  of 
construction. 

Along  almost  every  street,  except  Calle  Florida,  the 
Avenida  de  Mayo,  and  the  diagonal  avenues,  runs  a  tramline 
on  which  the  cars  all  go  in  one  direction  in  one  street  and  in 


84  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

the  contrary  direction  in  the  next  and  so  on.  Ten  cents  is 
the  fare  for  a  single  journey  anywhere  within  the  length  or 
breadth  of  the  Federal  Capital,  but  one  cannot  take  tickets 
entitling  one  to  any  change  of  car  ;  and  for  that  one  must 
buy  another  ten  cents  ticket. 

This  matter  of  change  of  car  may  have  been  overlooked  by 
the  Municipality  when  the  concession  was  granted  to  the 
Anglo-Argentine  Tramways  Company,  of  which  concession 
the  universal  lo  cent  fare  was  a  sine  qua  non  condition  ; 
perhaps,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Company  stuck  out  on  that 
point.  Anyhow,  if  one  wishes  to  get  full  value  for  his  lo 
cents  on  a  Buenos  Aires  tramline  he  must  stick  to  the  car 
in  which  he  has  begun  his  ride.  By  doing  so,  he  can  often 
take  a  long  round  trip  and  come  back  to  his  point  of  de- 
parture. This  observation  also  applies  to  the  Tramways  in 
Montevideo,  but  there,  with  due  knowledge  and  careful 
selection,  one  can  practically  get  all  over  the  place,  without 
changing  ;  owing  to  the  more  erratic  routes  taken  by  the 
lines. 

For  a  variety  of  reasons,  the  Buenos  Aires  Tramway 
system  is  considered  by  authorities  on  such  matters  to  be 
the  best  in  the  world.  It  is  mostly  in  the  hands  of  the  Anglo- 
Argentine  Tramways  Company. 

Another  company  is  the  Lacroze,  a  private  company 
largely  interested  also  in  the  Buenos  Aires  Central  Railway. 
Its  trams  run  through  the  Capital  and  to  the  Western 
suburban  districts. 

A  third  company  runs  trams  out  of  the  Capital  to  the 
Southern  Suburban  districts. 

It  may  here  be  said  that  a  good  supply  of  taxi-cabs  is  to 
be  found  both  in  Montevideo  and  Buenos  Aires. 

One  advantage,  suggested  by  the  mention  of  taxi-cabs,  of 
visiting  Montevideo  before  Buenos  Aires,  is  that  that  way 
one  feels  richer  after  the  journey  between  the  two  than  one 
would  if  the  itinerary  had  been  reversed. 

Living  is  not  cheap  in  Buenos  Aires,  but  its  cost  is  a  relief 


THK  AVKNIDA    UK   .MAVO,    liUENOS  AIRKS 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AIRES     85 

after  a  sojourn  in  the  Uruguayan  Capital ;  though  expense 
there  is  again  as  nothing  if  one  has  experienced  that  of  Rio 
de  Janeiro,  the  dearest  place,  probably,  in  the  whole  world, 
and  the  one  in  which,  scenery  apart,  one  gets  as  little  satis- 
faction for  one's  money  as  anywhere. 

In  Montevideo  one  has,  it  is  true,  plenty  of  satisfaction  of 
a  quiet,  pleasant  kind,  but  those  (actually,  although  founded 
on  a  firm  gold  basis)  paper  dollars — only  four  of  them  and 
70  cents  worth  of  mixed  change  for  a  British  Sovereign — 
melt  quickly  into  inappreciable  small  silver  and  nickel  ; 
none  of  which  seems  to  be  worth  much,  though  a  50-cent  bit 
is  really  worth  more  than  a  British  florin.  For  exchange 
purposes  that  is  ;  in  its  native  land  its  purchasing  power  is 
strikingly  small.  After  Montevideo,  there  is  some  satisfac- 
tion about  the  feel  of  the  bundle  of  Argentine  paper  dollars 
one  gets  for  one's  Uruguayan  money.  And  in  Buenos  Aires 
several  quite  useful  things  can  be  got  for  §1,  National  (paper) 
money.  Although  the  purchasing  power  of  this  last  (its 
exchange  value  is  is.  8|d.)  is  not  that  of  one  shilling  in 
England. 

In  neither  country  does  one  often  see  an  actual  gold  coin, 
in  Argentina  practically  never  in  ordinary  everyday  Hfe; 
most  of  the  gold  against  which  the  current  paper  is  issued 
going,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  Chapter  on  Finance  and  Com- 
merce, into  the  "  Conversion "  strong  rooms  and  staying 
there. 

The  passion  for  amusement  must  indeed  be  overpowering 
in  anyone  who  is  not  satisfied  with  what  Buenos  Aires  pro- 
vides of  all  kinds  in  that  regard.  Two  Opera  Houses,  the 
older  one,  stately  and  comfortable  in  its  interior  arrange- 
ments, and  the  new  Municipal  Opera  House,  the  Colon 
Theatre,  gorgeous  in  velvet  and  marble  ;  and  powdered, 
gold-mace  bearing  lackeys  to  bow  one  in  at  its  wide  portals. 

Great  is  the  rivalry  between  these  two  houses  to  secure 
the  best  stars  and  companies  ;  and  between  them  they 
certainly  get  the  best  that  Europe  can  provide.     In  some 


86  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

cases  they  have  anticipated  Europe,  notably  in  the  instances 
of  Caruso  and  Maria  Gay,  both  of  whom  appeared  in  Buenos 
Aires  before  Europe  had  even  heard  of  them.  One  feature  is 
common  to  the  poHcy  of  both  Opera  Houses,  viz.,  a  scale  of 
charges  for  admission  so  high  that  it  is  impossible  for  anyone 
who  wishes  to  be  considered  somebody  not  to  have  his  or  her 
box  at  one  or  both  of  them  for  the  season. 

After  the  Opera  House  comes,  in  degree  of  prestige,  per- 
haps, the  Odeon  Theatre  ;  most  frequently  devoted  to  the 
representation  of  classic  or  serious  drama.  After  it  come 
many  theatres  ;  the  finest  among  them  being  the  Cohseo  in 
which  good  companies,  chiefly  Italian,  give  first-rate  per- 
formances of  every  kind  from  Grand  Guignol  to  Light 
Opera.  After  these,  again,  come  the  purely  Argentine 
Theatres  ;  in  which  drama  and  comedy  faithfully  reflecting 
the  true  native  life  are  performed. 

Such  performances  should  not  be  missed  (as  they  too 
often  are  because  they  are  not  fashionable  in  a  country  where 
fashion's  favour  is  almost  exclusively  bestowed  on  imported 
wares)  by  anyone  having  sufficient  Argentine  Spanish  to 
appreciate  the  purport  and  point  of  their  dialogue  ;  which, 
in  true  Argentine  fashion,  includes  a  liberal  use  of  words  and 
phrases  capable  of  double  meanings. 

Brilliantly  lighted,  sumptuously  panelled  and  upholstered 
cafes  with  tables  spreading  over  the  pavement  outside  them, 
tend  to  keep  life  in  Buenos  Aires  awake  till  the  wee  sma' 
hours  begin  to  grow  large. 

"  See  Naples  and  die  "  runs  the  Neapolitan  saying.  "  See 
Buenos  Aires  and  stop  there  as  long  as  you  can  "  is  likely  to 
prove  acceptable  advice  to  anyone  with  a  taste  for  easy 
gaiety  and  with  a  disposition  for  not  doing  to-day  anything 
of  an  irksome  or  disagreeable  nature  which  can  possibly  be 
put  off  till  the  morrow.  Much  native  encouragement  will  be 
afforded  him  to  postpone  it  till  the  Greek  Kalends  ;  and  then 
to  change  his  mind  about  doing  it  at  all. 

Till  the  morrow's  sun  shines,  that  is.    Then  he  will  see  the 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AIRES     87 

City,  which  overnight  he  may  have  thought  wholly  absorbed 
by  pleasure-seeking,  transformed  into  a  quick-moving,  alert 
commercial  centre.  Surely  the  Argentine  when  in  Buenos 
Aires  burns  his  candle  at  both  ends.  The  well-to-do  have, 
however,  their  Estancias  on  which  to  vary  town  life  with 
mentally  restful,  if  often  physically  laborious,  days  spent  in 
superintending  their  agricultural  interests. 

Fine-looking  new  buildings  are  ever  springing  up  in 
Buenos  Aires  with  such  surprising  suddenness  and  rapidity 
as  to  render  any  description  of  the  chief  edifices  of  that  city 
out  of  date  almost  before  it  can  get  into  print.  Even  the 
palatial  home  of  the  Jockey  Club,  renowned  as  the  most 
splendidly  luxurious  Club  House  in  the  world,  is  soon  to  be 
abandoned  by  its  members  for  another  more  gorgeously 
wonderful  still. 

One  leaves  the  City  for  a  few  weeks  in  the  Camp  wondering 
what  the  former  will  look  like  on  one's  return. 

That  is  one  did,  until  very  recently.  Just  now,  the  War 
has  called  a  temporary  halt  in  the  commencement  of  many 
projected  building  operations. 

One  cannot,  however,  leave  Buenos  Aires  without  mention 
of  the  beautiful,  park-like  suburb  of  Palermo  ;  with  the 
broad  Avenida  de  Alvear  leading  from  the  northern  part  of 
the  City  to  it.  It  may  here  be  observed  that  fashion  has  not 
travelled  westward  in  Buenos  Aires  ;  the  Northern  parts  of 
the  City  being  the  most  fashionable  and  adorned  with  the 
most  palatial  new  dwellings. 

A  wide  palm-bordered  avenue  leads  to  others  winding 
round  grassy  spaces  in  which  backwaters  of  the  Tigre  River 
glint  under  overhanging  trees  ;  amid  all  of  which  is  a  great 
restaurant,  after  the  fashion  of  those  in  the  Parisian  Bois  de 
Boulogne. 

That  restaurant  is,  to  the  author's  mind,  the  one  great 
tawdry  blot  on  the  picture  ;  but  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that 
every  afternoon  and  evening,  during  a  long  season,  it  is 
crowded  with  gaily  dressed  people  who  all  seem  happy  and 


88  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

vociferously  contented  with  the  refreshments  and  music  it 
provides. 

The  Palermo  Avenue  is  the  fashionable  drive,  the  Corso  of 
the  Elite  of  Buenos  Aires  Society ;  and  also  of  others 
desirous  of  attracting  attention  to  their  equipages  and  them- 
selves. Everyone  the  aspirant  to  social  distinction  ought — 
and  ought  not — to  know  is  to  be  seen  at  Palermo  on  a  fine 
late  afternoon  or  evening  in  Spring.  In  Summer  most  of 
them  are,  naturally,  at  Mar-del-Plata. 

Adjoining  the  Park  is  the  Palermo  race-course,  over  which 
the  Jockey  Club  rules  absolute.  It  should  be  added  that  the 
Buenos  Aires  Jockey  Club  is  not  only  an  association  of  racing 
men,  but  is  in  reality  the  hub  of  social  intercourse  in  Buenos 
Aires. 

Its  large  and  small  dining-rooms  are  available  to  members, 
and  even  to  very  distinguished  strangers,  for  private  dinners ; 
which  are  exquisitely  cooked  and  served  by  the  numerous 
and  highly  expert  staff  of  the  Club. 

In  fact  the  Jockey  Club  is  a  very  influential  body  indeed  ; 
quite  apart  from  racing  matters. 

There  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  the  gambling 
element  in  racing  is  far  too  popular  in  Buenos  Aires.  There 
is  a  race  meeting  on  every  day  in  the  week,  Sundays,  of 
course,  included,  during  a  season  which  lasts  nearly  all  the 
year  round.  And  these  meetings  are  thronged  by  youths 
and  other  people  who  most  certainly  should  be,  and  would 
much  better  be,  at  work. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  system  of  weekly 
National  Lotteries  (these  are  at  least  carried  on  with  un- 
impeachable fairness  and  io%  of  the  amounts  subscribed 
to  them,  in  payment  for  tickets,  goes,  after  paying  working 
expenses,  printing,  etc.,  to  charity)  the  totalizer  appeals  far 
too  sympathetically  to  the  Latin-American  natural  love  of 
gambling  ;  and  that  love,  as  always  in  a  new  country  where 
so  many  fortunes  seem  to  have  had  their  origin  in  luck,  has 
developed  dangerously  on  the  right  bank  of  the  River  Plate. 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AIRES     89 

Close  also  to  Palermo  Park  is  the  scene  of  the  annual 
Agricultural  and  Live  Stock  Show  ;  now  a  world-renowned 
Exhibition  of  as  fine  cattle  and  sheep  as  can  be  seen  any- 
where. Horses  and  Poultry  also  are  splendidly  represented 
at  this  show  ;  which  is  perhaps  the  greatest  event  in  the 
Argentine  Calendar. 

Further  out  from  the  city,  past  and  beyond  Palermo,  is 
Hurlingham  ;  an  ever-enlarging  group  of  English  red-brick 
villas  inhabited  for  the  most  part  by  English  people.  These 
villas  surround  the  ample  grounds  of  the  Hurlingham  Club, 
where  polo  and  riding  and  driving  competitions,  etc.,  follow 
the  lines  of  its  English  prototype.  The  Club  house  is  com- 
fortable, the  food  good,  and  a  huge  swimming  bath  is  among 
its  many  undoubted  attractions.    It  also  has  a  drag  hunt. 

Further  out  again  are  beautiful  reaches  of  the  Tigre  River, 
famous  for  boating  ;  and  on  which  an  annual  regatta,  the 
Henley  of  South  America,  is  held. 

The  Avenida  de  Alvear,  above  referred  to,  runs  through 
the  most  fashionable  residential  quarter  of  Buenos  Aires,  a 
quarter  filled  with  veritable  huge  palaces  which  with  their 
gardens  surround  the  Recoleta,  the  fashionable  cemetery. 
A  strange  city  of  the  dead  in  which  the  coffins  are  seen  on 
shelves  contained  in  small  plate-glass  fronted  temples,  so 
that  all  may  view  the  last  outward  casings  of  generations. 

On  "  The  Day  of  the  Dead  "  (All  Saints'  Day)  the  Recoleta 
is  a  blaze  of  beautiful  wreaths  and  floral  tributes  ;  after- 
wards too  often  replaced,  alas,  by  ugly  contrivances  in 
porcelain  or,  worse  still,  enamelled  iron. 

Returning  to  Buenos  Aires  proper  one  must  not,  cannot, 
forget  Calle  Florida,  "  The  Bond  Street  of  the  South." 
So  called  because  in  it  are  situate  most  of  the  finest  shops  in 
South  America  for  the  sale  of  what  are  sometimes  ofiicially 
described  as  articles  of  luxury  ;  wearing  apparel  of  the  best 
and  costliest,  for  both  sexes,  jewellery,  stationery,  etc.  It  is, 
in  fact,  to  Buenos  Aires  all  Bond  Street  once  was,  and  old 
Bond  Street  to  some  extent  still  is,  to  London. 


90  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Needless,  almost,  to  say,  Florida  deals  exclusively  in  im- 
ported goods  and  a  very  great  majority  of  its  shopkeepers 
are  foreigners  ;  among  whom  the  purveyors  of  "  Modes," 
"Robes  "  and  "  Lingerie  "  are,  naturally,  mostly  French. 

No  vehicular  traffic  whatever  is  now  allowed  in  Calle 
Florida  between  certain  hours  of  the  afternoon  ;  in  order 
not  to  incommode  the  throngs  of  fashionable  shoppers  with 
whom  it  is  usually  crowded.  It  is  the  only  street  in  which 
Argentine  ladies  of  high  degree  are  to  be  seen  on  foot.  In 
bygone  and  less  crowded  times  it  was  the  scene  of  the  after- 
noon Corso  ;  when  play  was  made  with  fans  and  gallants 
ogled  from  the  edges  of  the  pavement. 

There  is  at  present  still  a  lack  of  Hotel  accommodation 
suitable  for  Europeans  of  moderate  means.  There  are  great 
numbers  of  Hotels  in  Buenos  Aires,  but  the  good  ones  are 
very  expensive  while  the  cheaper  ones  are  not  very  good. 
That  is  to  say,  one  must  have  got  accustomed  to  the  South 
American  haphazard  fashion  of  service  and  general  arrange- 
ments before  being  able  to  regard  the  latter  as  in  any  way 
comfortable.  Montevideo  is  still  worse  off ;  having  few 
Hotels  which  can  be  regarded  as  good  (though  there  are  one 
or  two),  while  prices,  as  in  everything  else,  run  higher  than 
in  Buenos  Aires. 

A  word  must  be  said  in  defence  of  the  latter  City  against  a 
prevailing  impression,  created,  goodness  knows  how,  of  its 
intense  immorality.  This  charge  simply  is  not  true.  Buenos 
Aires  is  no  more  immoral  than  and  certainly  not  as  vicious 
as  are  most  European  Capitals. 

True,  it  is  not  in  South  American  human  nature  to  be 
puritanical  but  the  lower  classes  in  Argentina  and  Uruguay 
are  but  non-moral,  to  use  a  somewhat  fashionable  term,  with 
the  non-morality  of  grown-up  children,  which  they  are. 
They  have  not  the  faintest  idea  of  the  vice  which  abounds  in 
the  great  cities  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  Montevideo  is 
more  staid  than  cosmopolitan  Buenos  Aires ;  even  at 
Carnival  time  the  former  City  seems  to  take  its  merry- 


I 


MONTEVIDEO  AND  BUENOS  AIRES     91 

making  seriously.  Any  real  vice  which  can  be  found  in 
either  Capital  is  an  imported  article. 

If  among  the  lower  classes  of  both  countries  the  whole 
advantages  of  the  marriage  ceremony  seem  not  to  be  duly 
appreciated,  this  is  due,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  to 
motives  of  economy.  A  religious  marriage  service  is  a  costly 
item  in  the  equipment  of  a  young  couple,  and  a  purely  civil 
ceremony  is  even  less  favourably  looked  on  by  neighbours 
than  a  postponement  of  any  ceremony  at  all.  Later,  such 
couples  usually  do  marry  with  due  pomp  and  circumstance, 
including  the  invitation  of  all  and  sundry  to  the  humble 
wedding  feast.  After  that,  all  is  in  order  in  the  case  of  the 
death  of  the  husband  and  father ;  for  marriage  legitimatizes 
previously  born  children.  Indeed,  the  writer  was  once 
present  at  a  fiesta  in  a  rural  district,  not  forty  minutes'  run 
by  train  from  the  City  of  Buenos  Aires,  organized  to  honour 
the  occasion  of  the  visit  of  a  Priest  who  in  a  very  short  space 
of  time  married  the  parents  and  christened  a  whole  batch  of 
their  children. 

An  old  custom  still  chiefly  prevailing  among  the  humbler 
classes,  both  urban  and  rural,  is  one  which  may  be  called  the 
"  waking  "  of  the  dead.  The  news  of  a  bereavement  spreads 
quickly  among  neighbours  ;  who  do  not  wait  to  be  invited 
but  arrive,  in  groups  organized  extemporaneously  by  them- 
selves, at  the  house  of  mourning.  There,  one  of  such  groups 
succeeds  another,  and  so  on  throughout  the  night  after  a 
death ;  sitting  silently  and  only  moving  to  partake  of  the 
necessary  refreshment  provided  in  view  of  their  sure  coming. 

As  in  most  other  countries  where  modernity  has  not  yet 
suppressed  all  local  colour  with  its  neutral  tints,  the  lower 
classes  in  both  Argentina  and  Uruguay  are  much  the  most 
interesting.  The  free-and-easy  Bohemian  sort  of  life  in  a 
conventillo'^  is  curious.  In  each  of  its  many  rooms  lives  a 
family,  while  the  court  is  common  to  all  for  cooking  (a 

*  A  long,  narrow,  stone-paved  court  with  the  doors  of  single  dwelling- 
rooms  leading  into  it  and  a  portal  opening  on  to  the  street. 


92  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

charcoal  brazier  usually  stands  at  the  side  of  each  door), 
washing  of  clothes  and,  last  but  not  least,  the  discussion  of 
mate  and  gossip.  All  sorts  of  people  dwell  in  a  single  con- 
ventillo,  artisans,  hawkers,  washerwomen,  milliners,  factory 
hands,  poor  employees,  etc.  etc.,  and  all  group  themselves 
in  the  common  courtyard  of  an  evening  when  work  is  done, 
frequently  to  the  music  of  a  guitar. 

The  upper  classes,  on  the  other  hand,  strive  chiefly  to  reflect 
the  latest  moods  of  European  fashion  in  general  and  of  that 
of  Paris  in  particular — even,  since  the  War,  to  the  extent 
of  making  retrenchment  in  living  expenses  the  fashion.  A 
fashion  which,  if  it  last,  will  not  be  the  least  of  the  good 
which  has  come  to  Argentina  from  the  European  upheaval 
which  has  forced  the  River  Plate  countries  to  learn  to  rely 
on  their  own  resources  and  individual  efforts.  Gone, 
already,  are  the  battalions  of  motor-cars  of  very  latest 
pattern  with  which  every  wealthy  Argentine  family  has 
hitherto  thought  it  necessary  to  its  dignity  to  be  provided 
— one  each  for  father,  mother  and  each  son  and  daughter — 
economy  is  now  "  De  Moda  "  and  ostentation  therefore 
become  old-fashioned  and  bad  taste.  An  immense  change  to 
have  taken  place,  as  it  did,  in  the  course  of  only  a  few 
months. 

Montevideo  had  no  need  of  such  a  volte  face  of  habit. 
Uruguayans  never  developed  the  love  of  display  so  charac- 
teristic of  Argentine  aristocracy. 

With  its  some  i|  million  inhabitants,  Buenos  Aires  has 
the  largest  population  of  any  Capital  City  in  America. 
Montevideo,  with  some  400,000  inhabitants,  surpasses 
Washington  in  this  respect. 


CHAPTER  VII 
FINANCE  AND   COMMERCE 

OWING  to  their  dependence  on  the  Northern  Hemi- 
sphere for  the  Capital  necessary  for  the  continuance 
of  their  development,  the  River  Plate  countries, 
and  South  American  countries  generally,  are  as  a  barometer, 
and  an  extremely  sensitive  one,  in  regard  to  the  conditions 
of  the  Money  markets  of  the  Older  World, 

Thus  already  in  1913,  the  fear  of  Balkan  complications  in 
both  Argentina  and  Uruguay  was  represented  by  a  general 
fall  in  what  previously  may  have  been  somewhat  inflated, 
or  at  least  too  anticipatory,  land  values. 

This  fall,  coupled  with  and  increased  by  relatively  bad 
harvests,  marked  the  commencement  of  rather  bad  times  in 
both  Republics.  In  this  regard  it  may  be  well  to  say  that 
comparatively  bad  times  come  easily  and  swiftly  on  a 
country  like  Argentina,  the  prosperity  of  which  depends 
very  largely  indeed  on  its  cereal  production  and  in  which 
landowners  and  agriculturists  from  the  largest  Estanciero  to 
the  smallest  Chacrero  have  long  been  encouraged  by  Nature 
to  regard  each  coming  year  as  inevitably  more  prosperous 
than  its  predecessor.  The  result  of  this  optimism,  usually 
justified  by  the  event,  is  that  when  any  set-back,  caused, 
say,  by  late  frosts  or  early  rains,  such  as  farmers  in  less 
favoured  lands  would  take  as  an  ordinary  risk  of  their 
occupation,  does  occur,  the  streets  of  Buenos  Aires  are 
immediately  filled  with  men  with  long  faces  running  to  the 
Banks  and  anxiously  discussing  the  ruin  which,  apparently, 
seems  to  them  to  be  staring  them  in  the  face,  notwithstand- 

93 


94  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

ing  that  most  of  them  must  often  have  been  through 
similar  "  crises  "  before. 

One  need  only  go  "  on  'Change  "  to  be  almost  convinced 
that  the  whole  vaunted  prosperity  of  the  Republic  is  tum- 
bling about  its  ears.  Even  newspapers,  which,  by  this  time 
at  least,  ought  to  know  better,  join  in  the  panic  cry. 

At  such  times  people  possessed  of  Capital  and  common 
sense  make  good  investments  ;  the  Banks  tide  everyone 
else  over  quite  comfortably  enough  not  to  interfere  with 
the  socially  obligatory  summer  gathering  at  Mar-del-Plata  ; 
the  following  harvest  is  a  bumper  ;  and  all  is  well  again  in 
the  best  and  sunniest  of  all  possible  Republics. 

That  is  the  usual  course  of  happenings  after  inferior 
harvests  but,  as  is  easy  to  imagine,  the  present  situation  is 
as  unique  in  South  America  as  it  is  in  all  other  parts  of  the 
world.  On  the  River  Plate,  indeed,  it  was,  if  one  may  be 
permitted  the  expression,  aggravated  by  anticipation  con- 
sequent on  the  (almost  miraculous  for  these  countries) 
following  of  yet  another  rainy  harvest-time. 

On  the  top  of  all  came  August  with  its  declarations  of 
European  War,  the  first  result  of  which  in  the  River  Plate 
Republics  was  intimate  realization  of  the  extent  to  which 
they  had  been  dependent  on  Europe  since  the  commence- 
ment of  their  real  commercial  development. 

They  were  thrown  entirely  on  their  own  resources  and 
ability  with  no  chance  of  any  immediate  help  from  outside. 

It  is  to  the  credit  of  both  Republics  that  they  rose  to  the 
situation.  Seven  days  of  Bank  Holiday  were  at  once  pro- 
claimed in  Argentina  ;  during  which  time  the  Ministry  of 
Finance  and  other  Government  departments  were  loyally 
assisted  by  both  native  and  foreign  bankers  and  financiers 
to  devise  necessary  measures. 

In  the  result  Laws  were  summarily  passed  by  Congress  to 
prevent  all  exportation  of  gold  ;  outgoing  ships  might  only 
take  with  them  sufficient  coal  to  last  them  till  they  reached 
the  next  fort  in  South  America  (Argentina  and  Uruguay  as 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  95 

yet  produce  no  practically  valuable  coal,  so  that  they  are 
dependent  on  import  for  their  stocks  of  this  fuel),  and  pro- 
vision was  made  that  cereal  exports  should  be  limited  to  the 
surplus  of  such  produce  after  the  retention  of  a  liberal 
allowance  for  home  consumption  until  the  next  harvests. 

Uruguay  adopted  similar  protective  measures. 

So  far  so  good,  but  the  Argentine  Banks,  generally,  were 
faced  with  the  necessity  for  immediate  decision  under 
conditions  which,  unfortunately,  are  all  too  frequently 
recurrent  in  rapidly  progressing  countries.  Many  of  the 
securities  held  by  them  were  obviously  not  worth  the  value 
that  they  had  been  taken  for,  in  consequence  of  the  previous 
shrinkage  of  values  above  alluded  to. 

This  was  a  momentous  matter  for  consideration  during 
the  seven  days'  Bank  holiday. 

In  the  result,  all  Banks  adopted  the  policy  of  cutting 
losses  even  at  the  risk,  amounting  to  extreme  likelihood,  of 
letting  their  weaker  customers  drown,  *  while  mercy  was  only 
extended  to  those  evidently  strong  enough  to  keep  afloat 
throughout  the  crisis  and  its  after  effects. 

This  decision  taken,  and  enforced  on  the  reopening  of 
the  Banks,  scarcely  any  credit  establishment  took  any 
advantage  of  the  Moratorium  declared  by  the  Government. 

In  Uruguay  the  situation  proved  easier  on  account  of  a 
comparative  absence  of  the  complication  of  securities  based 
on  inflated  values.  Here  again  the  Uruguayan  showed  his 
superiority  in  the  matter  of  cautiously  prudent  finance  over 
his  more  enthusiastically  volatile  over-river  cousin. 

This  observation  notwithstanding,  it  is  now  clear  that 
although  a  severe  financial  pinch  is  still  felt  in  both  countries, 
the  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  ships  of  State  are  both  fully 
trimmed  to  enable  them  to  ride  over  bad  financial  weather, 

^  Oue  immediate  result  of  this  in  Argentina  was  a  crop  of  private 
failures.  The  occurrence  of  these  has  since,  however,  steadily  decreased 
in  number.  None  at  all  were  recorded  during  December,  1915.  The  year 
1916  has  begun  in  both  countries  with  a  good  financial  situation  and  a 
promising  outlook. 


96  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

the  first  shock  of  which  was  the  most  perilous  to  meet  and 
needed  the  most  prompt  and  intelligent  handling. 

In  the  result  neither  country  will  eventually  be  any  worse 
for  the  moral  effects  of  having  suddenly  been  left  to  its  own 
resources. 

Meanwhile  land,  especially,  perhaps,  in  Argentina,  offers 
an  opportunity  to  Capital  such  as,  as  has  been  said  elsewhere 
in  these  pages,  everyone  for  humanitarian  reasons  must 
hope  will  never  occur  again. 

Given  knowledge  of  just  where  and  what  to  buy,  large 
fortunes  await  those  with  courage  and  capital  to  purchase 
either  town  lots  or  agricultural  and  pastoral  land  in  either 
Republic  ;  in  Argentina  preferably  for  earlier  realization. 

Once  peace  is  declared,  and  even  before,  it  needs  little 
imagination  to  perceive  the  wealth  to  be  secured  by  the 
agricultural  and  live-stock  produce  on  markets  suddenly 
deprived  of  much  of  the  usual  output  of  sources  of  cereal 
supply  as  Russia  and  Canada,  through  withdrawal  of  labour 
for  military  purposes,  and  faced  with  an  enormously  in- 
creased demand  for  meat  and  grain  caused  by  the  necessary 
shortage  of  production  over  all  War-infected  areas. 

In  fact  Argentina  and  Uruguay  are  likely  soon  to  ex- 
perience the  truth  of  the  proverb,  "  It's  an  ill  wind  that  blows 
nobody  any  good,"  and  they  are  among  the  very  few 
countries  of  the  world  about  the  commercial  conditions  of 
which,  after  the  war,  it  is  pretty  safe  to  prophesy  in  the 
direction  of  a  prompt  return,  in  an  enhanced  degree,  to  their 
normal  course  of  ever-growing  prosperity. 

Always  with  the  factor  of  population  and  consequent  suffi- 
ciency of  agricultural  labour  being  reserved  for  consideration 
after  the  event.  A  large  and  very  serious  reservation  which 
cannot  safely  be  lost  sight  of  by  anyone  desirous  of  land  spec- 
ulation in  either  of  the  two  countries  under  discussion. 

Let  the  reader  pardon  this  recurrent  insistence  on  this 
question  of  population,  made  in  the  hope  that  it  may  help 
to  open  the  eyes  of  the  Authorities  concerned,  especially 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  97 

Argentine,  to  the  crying  necessity  in  their  country's  interests 
for  practically  workable  inducements  to  true  colonization, 
as  distinguished  from  mere  partial  exploitation  of  necessitous 
wage-earners.  And  the  eyes  not  only  of  the  Authorities,  but 
of  everyone  having  a  pecuniary  interest  of  any  sort  in  either 
Republic,  so  that  their  Congresses  and  landowners  may  be 
forced  to  consider  the  question  in  the  liberal  and  enlightened 
spirit  which  alone  can  remove  the  greatest  menace  to  their 
country's  economic  progress. 

If  the  two  Governments  and  great  landowners  would  only 
devote  one-tenth  part  of  the  admirable  ingenuity  and  energy 
with  which  they,  and  the  Argentine  especially,  have  very 
successfully  combated  locust  invasions  to  the  attraction  of 
small-holding  proprietary  agriculturalists,  the  River  Plate 
Territories  would  soon  break  into  an  irruption  of  statues  of 
the  originators  of  such  measures  which  would  outrival  the 
vast  quantity  of  those  erected  to  the  memories  of  Generals 
San  Martin,  Artigas  and  Urquiza.  (One  could  travel  far  in 
Argentina  without  discovering  a  town  which  does  not 
possess  a  statue  of  the  first-named  deliverer  of  his  country. 
Uruguay  has  also  many  San  Martin  statues,  but  runs 
preferably,  as  is  natural,  to  Urquiza  and,  lately,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  whitewashing  efforts  of  modem  historians, 
Artigas.) 

In  view  of  the  actual  situation,  financial  and  commercial 
statistics  relating  to  the  ante-war  era  necessarily  seem  to 
savour  mustily  of  the  back-number.  This  savour  is,  how- 
ever, more  due  to  imagination  than  to  actual  fact,  since  such 
statistics  are  just  as  interesting  as  ever  they  were  and 
really  show  the  normal  trend  of  things  economic  to  be 
resumed  and  likely  to  be  followed  in  even  a  more  favourable 
course,  as  far  at  least  as  Export  is  concerned.  As  for  the 
Import  of  manufactured  goods  an  attempt  to  deal  with 
some  of  the  probabilities  or  possibilities  of  this  question  in 
its  future  aspects  is  made  later  in  this  chapter. 


98  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

CURRENCY 

The  "  Caja  de  Conversion  "  (A  term  for  which  "  Conversion 
Chest  "  is  the  usual  clumsy  translation,  though  "  Conversion 
Box  "  stands  as  a  triumph  of  the  translator's  art.  Perhaps 
"  Conversion  Office  "  sounds  best,  though  it  does  not  convey 
a  true  idea  of  vaults  filled  with  sacks  of  golden  coin  and 
therefore  "  Conversion  Bank "  is  here  preferred)  is  an 
Argentine  Government  Institution  under  the  control  of  the 
National  Ministry  of  Finance  created  for  the  purpose  of 
dealing  with  the  issue,  exchange,  and  conversion  of  the 
currency  of  the  country.  It  issues  the  paper  currency  and 
must  hold  in  reserve  sufficient  gold  to  meet  the  circulating 
paper  money  ;  it  also  mints  the  nickel  and  copper  coinage 
of  the  country. 

Under  the  Conversion  Law  a  fixed  ratio  was  assigned  as 
between  gold  and  paper.  A  paper  dollar,  instead  of  being 
theoretically  equivalent  in  value  to  a  gold  dollar,  was 
declared  to  be  worth  only  44  cents  gold  ;  thus  with  44  cents 
gold  as  the  fixed  equivalent  of  one  dollar  paper  and,  con- 
versely, 2-27  paper  dollars  that  of  one  dollar  gold,  and  the 
smallest  gold  coin  minted  the  equivalent  of  2|  dollars  gold, 
the  use  of  paper  in  all  the  odd  amounts  of  everyday  trans- 
actions is  inevitable  and  consequently  the  major  portion  of 
the  gold  which  reaches  the  country  is  forced  by  the  public 
need  of  the  more  convenient  currency  into  the  "  Caja  de 
Conversion." 

The  accumulation  of  gold  in  the  "  Caja  "  on  December 
31st,  1915,  was  well  over  61  millions  sterling,  and  it  must 
be  noted  that  these  accumulations  cannot  leave  the  "  Caja  " 
under  any  consideration  (unless  by  special  sanction  of 
Congress),  except  in  exchange  for  paper  currency,  until  the 
time  when  the  currency  shall  be  placed  on  a  logically 
complete  metallic  basis.  The  provisions  of  the  Conversion 
Law  in  this  regard  are  exceptionally  stringent  ;  under  them 
every  official  of  the  "  Caja,"  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest. 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  99 

is  personally  responsible  for  their  observance,  and  they 
cannot  be  overruled  by  any  power  in  the  land.  So,  until 
Congress  approves  what  is  commonly  referred  to  as  the 
conversion,  the  store  of  gold  in  the  "  Caja  "  will  continue 
practically  intact  and  will  increase. 

The  misuse  of  this  term  "  Conversion  "  has  given  rise  to 
much  confusion  of  ideas,  even  in  Argentina.  The  actual 
conversion  took  place  with  the  above-mentioned  assignment 
of  the  fixed  ratio  of  value  between  gold  and  paper. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  present  is  not  the  moment  for  the 
change  in  the  form  of  the  currency,  but  it  should  be  added 
that  apart  from  the  immediate  effects  of  the  war  the  time 
for  that  change  has  not  yet  arrived.  Irresponsible  projects 
for  the  change  have  been  put  forward  from  time  to  time 
during  recent  years,  but  official  declarations  in  that  regard 
have  never  yet  gone  further  than  complacent  platitudes  to 
the  effect  that  the  time  for  it  was  fast  approaching  ;  without, 
however,  the  faintest  indications  of  any  schemes  for  carrying 
the  change  out  in  practice.  Besides,  under  the  Law  it  cannot 
be  accomplished  until  a  fund  or  deposit  in  the  Bank  of  the 
Nation,  and  to  which  the  National  Government  makes 
contributions  out  of  revenue,  has  reached  the  amount 
necessary  to  form  a  reserve  against  the  paper  currency  in 
circulation  prior  to  the  passing  of  the  Conversion  Law. 
For  a  long  while  past,  the  amount  of  that  fund  stood  at  six 
millions  sterling,  but  this  amount  (then  still  insufficient  for 
such  reserve)  became  reduced  in  August  last  to  two  millions 
sterling  in  consequence  of  special  financial  measures  adopted 
by  the  x\rgentine  Government  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
and  referred  to  more  fully  in  the  chapter  on  "  The  War." 

On  the  31st  of  December,  1914,  the  Argentine  Government 
held  gold  accumulations  to  the  value  in  round  figures  of 
63  millions  sterling,  of  which,  as  has  been  seen,  2  millions 
pertain  to  the  Conversion  Fund  at  the  Bank  of  the  Nation. 
This  fund  must  not  be  confused  with  the  amounts  in  the 
"  Caja,"  the  uses  of  the  former  (apart  from  its  constituting,  as 


100    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

has  been  said,  a  reserve  against  the  paper  currency  in  circu- 
lation previously  to  the  passing  of  the  Conversion  Law) 
being  limited  to  the  purposes  of  foreign  exchange,  the 
benefit  of  the  Fund  itself  and  to  aid  the  control  of  the 
market ;  while  the  accumulations  in  the  "  Caja  "  can  only, 
in  normal  circumstances,  leave  it  in  exchange  for  paper 
currency. 

Besides  the  actual  gold  in  the  "  Caja  "  this  Institution 
held  at  the  end  of  191 5  gold  and  bonds  to  the  value  of 
over  14  millions  sterling  which  had  been  deposited  at  the 
various  Argentine  Legations.  These  deposits  have  naturally 
increased  largely  since.  Besides  all  this  the  Bank  of  the 
Nation,  the  Bank  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires  and  the 
private  banks  held  large  amounts  of  gold. 

Uruguay  has  not  introduced,  and  has  always  resisted 
the  temptation  to  introduce,  any  such  complications  of  her 
currency  ;   which  is  on  a  thorough  gold  basis. 

The  Argentine  Conversion  Law  was  passed  in  1899  and 
abrogated  in  1901-2  by  Congress  (in  consequence  of  the 
anticipation  of  possible  war  with  Chile,  over  the  frontier 
question,  the  payment  by  the  Nation  of  Provincial  debts  and 
the  closing  of  Argentine  ports  because  of  an  outbreak  of 
bubonic  plague). 

Therefore  the  present  solid  financial  status  of  the  Argentine 
Republic  dates  from  only  twelve,  or,  on  the  most  liberal 
reckoning,  fifteen  years  ago. 

Uruguay's  first  surplus  (of  $453,110)  accrued  in  1905-6  ; 
though  an  increased  surplus  has  figured  in  each  Uruguayan 
National  Budget  since  that  date. 


Equivalent  Values. 

Argentine     Si, 

gold 

=  3s.  iiid. 

$1, 

paper 

=  IS.  8fd. 

Uruguayan  %i 

=  4s.  3iVd.  ($1-3!  cents  U.S.A. 

£1 

=  $5-05  gold,  Argentine. 

£1 

=  $11*45  paper,  Argentine. 

£1 

=  $470,  Uruguayan. 

FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  101 

THE   ARGENTINE   MONETARY   SYSTEM 

Is  controlled  by  the  Conversion  law,  above  referred  to,  which 
fixed  a  ratio  between  the  value  of  the  paper  and  gold 
currencies  and  made  these  interchangeable  at  that  ratio  until 
the  time  should  be  judged  to  have  arrived  for  the  substitution 
of  metallic  coinage  for  paper. 

The  law  was  passed  as  the  only  available  though  drastic 
remedy  for  the  state  of  financial  chaos,  nothing  less,  in 
which  Argentina  found  herself  for  some  years  after  the 
crisis  of  1891.  For  the  coming  of  this  chaos  Argentines 
blame  the  European  Bankers  who,  at  least,  looked  on 
whilst  the  country  floundered  into  it.  For  this  view  they 
have  considerable  reason.  The  Bankers  were  men  of  great 
experience  in  Finance  ;  of  which  the  Argentines  of  that 
day  had  little  or  none.  Argentina  relied  on  the  men  who 
had  taken  her  Finances  in  hand  for  the  development  of  her 
vast  natural  resources.  She  awoke  to  find  herself  in  a 
financial  condition  which  would  have  spelt  a  century  of  ruin 
to  any  less  nature-favoured  land.  And  it  was  an  Argentine, 
Sefior  Ricardo  Pillado,  now  Director-General  of  the  Division 
of  Commerce  and  Industry  in  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture, 
who  devised  the  Law  which,  though  it  in  effect  involved  a 
partial  repudiation  of  the  country's  liabilities,  at  any  rate 
made  possible  the  financial  renaissance  on  which  her  present 
great  prosperity  was  founded. 

As  has  been  seen,  the  Conversion  Law  said  that  a  paper 
dollar  should  be  equivalent  to  44  cents  gold  and  that  con- 
versely a  gold  dollar  should  be  worth  2-27  paper  dollars. 
This  ratio  was  supposed  to  have  been  fixed  by  taking  the 
average  ratio  of  value  between  paper  and  gold  over  a  certain 
period  immediately  prior  to  the  passing  of  the  Law. 

This  basis  is  now  believed  to  have  been  fictitious,  it  being 
found  that,  had  such  an  average  of  values  been  struck,  a 
paper  dollar  would  have  become  the  equivalent  to  something 
much  more  like  60  cents  gold.    So  that  in  fact  a  repudiation 


102    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  40  cents  liability  on  every  paper  dollar  in  circulation  was 
made  to  become  one  of  56  cents. 

That,  however,  is  past  history  ;  and  the  existing  Law 
appears  likely  to  remain  in  operation  for  an  indefinite  time 
to  come. 

It  has  its  inconveniences.  Institutions  and  traders  are 
obliged  by  Law  to  keep  their  books  in  both  currencies. 
There  is  no  gold  coin  available  as  an  equivalent  to  i  paper 
dollar.  One  needs  to  have  a  clear  50  dollars'  worth  of  notes 
before  one  can  get  gold  out  of  the  Conversion  Bank  ;  so  that 
all  transactions  involving  odd  amounts  must  be  carried 
through  with  the  aid  of  paper.  In  point  of  fact  gold  is  only 
seen  in  the  course  of  important  transactions.  Still,  the  gold 
is  there,  in  the  country,  in  the  Conversion  Bank;  and 
cannot  be  withdrawn  from  the  coffers  of  that  Institution 
except  as  against  paper  dollars,  nor  can  paper  dollars  be 
issued  except  as  against  gold  actually  in  the  Conversion 
Bank.  For  the  absolutely  strict  observance  of  these  rules 
everyone  concerned,  from  the  President  of  the  Republic 
down  to  the  humblest  employee  of  the  Caja  is  personally 
responsible  under  the  law.  By  the  operation  of  the  law  the 
Republic  holds  a  usually  ever-increasing  stock  of  gold  ;  the 
accumulation  of  which  is  aided  by  the  inconvenience  for 
practical  exchange  of  the  figures  -44  and  2-27. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  object  which  the  framers 
of  the  Conversion  Law  originally  had  in  view,  the  rehabili- 
tation of  the  country's  Finance  and  credit,  has  been  fulfilled 
long  ago  ;  and  it  is  for  other  reasons  that  Foreign  Capitalists 
and  Banks,  to  whom  Argentina  must  still  look  for  the  means 
of  her  fuller  development,  prefer  to  let  the  dual  monetary 
system,  with  its  several  practical  inconveniences,  continue 
instead  of  encouraging  Congress  to  declare  the  purpose  of 
the  Law  fulfilled,  by  which  declaration  it  would,  by  its  terms, 
lapse  ipso  facto.  On  that  happening  there  would  be  a  period, 
momentary  only,  in  all  probability,  but  still  a  period,  during 
which  the  coffers  of  the  Conversion  Bank  would  be  open 


I 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  103 

through  the  automatic  lapse  of  the  Law  of  its  creation.  And 
Capitahsts  and  Bankers,  grown  very  prudent  indeed  in  their 
generation,  prefer  that  those  coffers  should  remain  closed  and 
safeguarded  as  they  are  ;  even  at  the  cost  of  some  few  extra 
clerks  to  cope  with  a  system  which  otherwise  works  very 
satisfactorily. 

Shin-plasters,  as  the  paper  dollars  are  called  by  Anglo- 
Argentines,  fulfil  all  the  purposes  of  daily  life  as  well  as 
would  silver  or  other  metallic  tokens.  Paper  dollars, 
guaranteed  by  gold,  have  also  other  advantages  over  a 
metal  coinage  which  might  not  be  so  fully  guaranteed. 

Therefore  the  Conversion  Law  remains  a  live  letter  on  the 
Argentine  Statute  Book. 

It  is,  however,  a  vulgar  error  to  refer  to  the  time  when 
other  tokens  might  be  substituted  for  paper  as  the  time  for 
"  Conversion."  Conversion  really  took  place  with  the 
coming  into  operation  of  the  law  which  converted  a  fluctuating 
ratio  into  a  fixed  one. 

The  speculation  in  gold,  referred  to  elsewhere,  which  had 
attained  disastrous  dimensions  just  prior  to  the  passing  of 
the  Law,  was  another  evil  to  which  that  Law  put  an  end. 
Then  as  now  all  everyday  transactions  were  carried  out  in 
paper  ;  but,  then,  no  man  could  tell  from  hour  to  hour  what 
the  paper  he  held  was  worth.  Everyone  was  by  force  of 
circumstances  practically  a  gambler  whether  he  wished  to 
be  one  or  not.  The  paper  tokens  for  which  he  had  sold  his 
wares  one  day  might  be  worth  much  more  or  less  the  next. 
Everyone  had  to  make  his  own  forecast  of  probabilities  before 
he  could  make  or  give  a  price  for  anything  ;  and  therefore 
became  a  constant  speculator,  a  gambler  in  futures,  in  fact. 
The  bad  moral  effects  of  such  a  state  of  things  is  obvious. 
Many  other  financial  evils  were  rife  at  this  time,  which  now 
have  only  historic  interest,  among  them  may  be  mentioned 
the  Banks  of  Issue  for  which  authority  appears  practically 
to  have  been  given  by  the  State  to  anyone  able  to  procure 
and  furnish  offices.     Stacks  of  the  notes  of  these  precious 


104    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Institutions  still  occupy  space  as  curious  lumber  somewhere 
in  the  cellars  and  garrets  of  Government  House.  Valueless 
and  best  forgotten  by  a  prosperous  and  enlightened  nation 
which  no  longer  needs  any  such  awful  examples  to  deter  it 
from  lapse  into  irregular  finance. 

Uruguay  has  a  gold,  silver  and  nickel  coinage,  but,  as  in 
Argentina,  notes  are  the  most  common  tokens,  especially  for 
amounts  of  $i  and  upwards.  As  will  have  been  understood, 
Uruguay  has  no  Caja  de  Conversion,  her  currency  being  and 
always  having  been  on  a  direct  gold  basis. 

COMMERCIAL   CONDITIONS 

One  of  the  immediately  world-wide  effects  of  the  great 
War  has  been  the  practically  total  elimination  of  German 
trade  competition,  an  elimination  which  may  not  unreason- 
ably be  calculated  to  last  for  some  time  to  come. 

This  therefore  is  the  golden  opportunity  for  other  com- 
petitors to  capture  the  large  bulk  of  export  trade  which  had 
gradually  been  absorbed  and  was  in  course  of  constantly 
increasing  absorption  in  the  countries  under  discussion  by 
German  firms. 

Many  Consular  Reports  and  publications  of  the  "  Bureau 
of  American  Republics  "  have  respectively  dealt  with  the 
consequent  loss  of  trade  to  Great  Britain  and  the  com- 
paratively slow  advance  in  that  respect  made  by  the  United 
States  and  these  documents  have  insistently  pointed  out 
the  whys  and  wherefores  of  German  commercial  success 
over  their  chief  rivals. 

The  writer  cannot  therefore  lay  claim  to  originality  in  the 
present  observations,  but  does  claim  that  his  persistence  in 
the  reiteration  of  what  he,  and  many  greater  than  he,  have 
continually  urged  on  every  possible  occasion  during  the  past 
decade  has  been  and  is  in  what  appears  to  him  to  be  the 
best  interests  of  those  most  concerned. 

Of  the  two  nations  the  British  still  has  the  better  oppor- 
tunity  to   extend   its   commerce   in   both   Argentina   and 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  105 

Uruguay.  The  reasons  (apart  from  the  actual  kaleidoscopic 
financial  and  industrial  situation)  for  this  opinion  are  that 
the  English  (as  all  people  hailing  from  the  British  Isles 
are  commonly  called  in  South  America)  have  already 
acquired  in  both  countries  a  firm  reputation  for  straight- 
forward dealing,  founded  on  many  years'  experience  and 
untainted  by  any  suspicion  of  underlying  political  motives, 
whereas  the  South  American  Republics  generally  harbour  a 
latent  but  constant  resentment  of  what  they  rightly  or 
wrongly  consider  to  be  the  tendency  of  the  United  States  to 
assume  a  dominating  influence  over  both  Americas.  In  fact 
to  construe  the  Monroe  doctrine  as  meaning,  to  cite  the  catch- 
phrase  which  to  the  innermost  South  American  mind  em- 
bodies something  very  closely  resembling  an  unpleasant 
truth,  "  America  for  the  North  Americans." 

Therefore,  pushing  United  States'  commerce  is  immedi- 
ately met  by  a  seemingly  dull  indifference  to  the  merits  of 
the  wares  it  offers,  praise  it  those  wares  never  so  loudly. 
And  this  observation  suggests  another  of  almost  equal  truth 
and  importance,  viz.  that  the  loud  and  strenuous  vaunting 
of  an  article  and  the  hustling  methods  so  much  admired  in 
the  great  Republic  of  the  North  are  worse  than  useless  in 
Spanish  South  America.  "  Why  so  much  talk  and  so  much 
hurry  to  strike  a  bargain  if  the  thing  is  really  good  ?  "  is  the 
mental  attitude  of  the  average  Spanish  American  towards 
the  vociferous  North  American  traveller  who  usually  makes 
the  further  mistake  of  appearing  to  wish  to  teach  his  listener 
the  latter's  own  business.  This,  as  has  been  said  elsewhere  in 
these  pages,  is  a  thing  no  Argentine  or  Uruguayan  will  stand. 
No  one  is  a  more  severe  critic  of  himself,  his  methods  and 
Institutions,  no  one  is  most  enamoured  of  progress  and 
improvement  than  he.  But  he  must  be  the  discoverer  and 
chooser  of  the  remedies  for  his  own  defects,  he  and  he  alone 
must  be  the  arbiter  of  his  own  destinies  and  set  his  own  house 
in  order.  In  such  matters  he  will  brook  no  interference. 
And  least  of  all  from  the  United  States. 


106    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

It  is  surprising  that  the  commercial  ability  of  the  latter 
country  should  not  long  ago  have  discovered  and  acted  in 
harmony  with  this  feature  of  South  American  psychology. 
It  seems,  however,  to  have  escaped  appreciation  by  "  Yankee  " 
cuteness. 

Accordingly,  we  find,  in  the  present  writer's  opinion,  two 
existing  obstacles  (apart,  as  has  been  indicated  above,  from 
the  present  financial  situation)  to  the  extension  of  the  trade 
of  the  United  States  in  Argentina  and  Uruguay.  One  of 
these,  the  inappropriate  method  of  approach  usually  pursued 
by  travellers  and  the  other  a  strong  and  jealous  suspicion 
of  the  ulterior  motives  of  the  United  States  in  endeavouring 
to  strengthen  her  commercial  foothold  in  the  Southern 
Hemisphere.  The  first  of  these  obstacles  should  be  easily 
removable,  unless,  indeed,  it  be  too  firmly  rooted  in  the 
North  American  mentality.  The  second  is  a  matter  for 
extremely  delicate  state  diplomacy,  and  equally  delicate 
behaviour  of  the  United  States'  delegates  at  each  future 
"  Congress  of  American  Republics," 

Having  thus  glanced  at  seemingly  obvious  defects  in 
United  States  methods  we  may  turn  to  those  of  British 
manufacturers. 

In  their  regard  one  can  scarcely  restrain  the  question, 
"  Do  they  really  want  the  South  American  trade  at  all  ?  " 
Because,  if  they  do,  they  set  about  getting  it  in  the  strangest 
possible  ways.  Their  apparent  attitude  can  be  summed  up 
by  saying  that  they  point-blank  refuse  to  give  a  customer 
what  he  thinks  he  wants  unless  his  ideas  on  that  subject 
entirely  coincide  with  what  they  think  is  best  for  themselves 
and,  incidentally,  it  would  seem,  for  him. 

South  American  governments  insist  on  the  metrical 
system  of  weights  and  measures  for  Customs  purposes :  the 
British  manufacturer  persists  in  a  firm  refusal  to  contem- 
plate anything  but  British  Tons  and  Feet.  This  may  seem 
a  trifling  matter  to  anyone  not  engaged  in  the  Import  trade 
of  a  metrical-system  country,  but  in  practice  the  rendering 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  107 

of  British  weights  and  measures  into  their  metrical  equiva- 
lents involves  not  only  a  large  amount  of  clerical  labour,  but 
is  also  a  frequent  source  of  error  in  the  results. 

A  most  actively  patriotic  Briton  who  is  the  head  of  a  large 
Importing  firm  in  Montevideo  told  the  present  writer  not 
long  ago  that  in  spite  of  his  patriotism  he  had  been  driven  to 
deal  with  German  firms  because,  for  one  reason,  of  the 
constant  inflictions  on  him  of  $80  fines  by  the  Customs 
Authorities,  that  sum  being  the  statutory  fine  in  Uruguay 
for  any  misstatement  of  weight  or  bulk  on  a  declaration. 

He,  in  common  with  the  generality  of  Importers  in  Argen- 
tina or  Uruguay,  had  found  himself  confronted  by  several 
very  weighty  reasons  for  necessarily  transferring  the  bulk  of 
his  orders  from  British  to  German  firms,  the  chief  of  which 
was  that  above  summed  up  ;  namely,  that  British  manu- 
facturers would  not  adapt  themselves  to  his  customers' 
requirements. 

"  We  are  making  this,  that,  or  the  other  pattern  "  of  what- 
ever the  article  in  question  may  be,  and  "  if  you  don't  Hke 
that  you  must  go  elsewhere  "  is  the  gist  of  the  average 
British  manufacturer's  last  word  in  the  discussion.  And,  as 
the  Importer  is  not  running  a  Commercial  Museum  of  articles 
of  the  highest  quality  or  best  British  taste,  but  has  to  sell 
what  he  imports  to  customers  who  have  lamentably  inde- 
pendent ideas  of  what  they  want,  he  does  go  elsewhere,  that 
is  to  say  he  did,  and,  most  frequently,  to  Germany.  To 
Germany,  where  most  things  were  at  all  events  cheaper,  and 
where,  if  qualities  were  not  so  good  as  in  the  United  King- 
dom, manufacturers  were  adaptable,  and  their  travelling 
representatives  spoke  Spanish  and  understood  the  ways  and 
wishes  and  even  the  foibles  of  South  American  customers. 

As  a  rule,  commercial  travellers  from  either  Great  Britain 
or  the  United  States  do  not  speak  anything  like  fluent 
Spanish.  Therefore,  they  are  obliged  to  engage  interpreters 
to  accompany  them  on  their  business  calls,  while  they  were 
quite  unable  to  take  advantage  of  the  opportunities  sought 


108    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

for  by  their  Spanish-speaking  German  competitors  of 
minghng  in  the  semi-social  Hfe  of  their  customers.  In  the 
bar  or  restaurant  the  German  traveller  was  a  jolly  good 
fellow  always  ready  to  pay  his  share  of  the  wine  bill  and  with 
his  pockets  filled  with  more  than  passable  cigars  and  he  could 
enjoy  and  respond  to  the  local  humour  and  generally  take  part 
in  all  the  fun  of  a  jovial  evening-out ;  for  which  the  Argentine, 
especially,  is  always  ready  and  willing  to  find  an  excuse. 

Now,  doing  persuasive  business  through  an  interpreter  is 
by  no  means  an  invariably  satisfactory  proceeding,  because 
the  interpreter's  own  mentality  inevitably  intervenes  and 
unconsciously  colours  both  sides  of  the  argument  with  tinges 
of  his  own  individuality.  He  says  what  he  thinks  you  wish 
to  say,  and  often  enough  replies  with  the  best  rendering  he 
can  make,  not  always  an  entirely  accurate  one,  of  what  he 
conceives  to  be  the  meaning  of  the  other  party  to  the  dis- 
cussion. As  for  the  evening-out  !  One  has  only  to  imagine 
the  effects  of  a  laborious  translation  of  always  very  allusive 
wit ;  the  point  of  which  in  Argentina  most  frequently  hinges 
on  double-meaning. 

The  German  studied  the  language,  and,  as  far  as  he  could, 
the  tastes  and  ways  of  the  people  of  the  country  he  intended 
visiting  before  he  set  out  on  his  commercial  travels. 

Travellers  of  other  nationalities  should  do  likewise  if  they 
wish  to  secure  a  substantial  share  of  the  trade  now  left  open 
to  their  bidding.^ 

And  British  manufacturers,  if  so  be  that  (I  repeat  the 
question)  they  do  want  the  South  American  markets  for  their 
goods,  must  make  up  their  minds  to  suit  the  requirements  of 
those  markets  whatever  may  be  their  own  private  opinion  of 
South  American  tastes  and  ways.  They  must  still  remember 
that  although  German  competition  has  ceased  and  may  con- 
tinue non-existent  for  even  a  very  long  time  to  come,  and 
while  Belgium  is,  for  the  time  being,  hopelessly  crippled, 
there  are  other  nations  who  desire  to  rise,  and  may  succeed 

^  The  substance  of  this  advice  has  recently  been  embodied  in  a  Foreign 
Office  Report. 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  109 

in  rising,  to  an  occasion  which,  for  the  awful  cause  of  it,  one 
can  only  hope  will  never  occur  again. 

It  is  a  truly  great  opportunity  for  both  British  and  United 
States  Commerce,  in  which,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  the 
former  has  a  very  considerable  start  in  the  political  and 
commercial  sympathies  and  prejudices  of  South  Americans. 
Nothing  which  British  manufacturers  cannot  remedy  appears 
to  exist  to  prevent  them  from  taking  extremely  profitable 
advantage  of  that  start,  not  only  for  the  recovery  of  lost 
ground,  but  for  grasping  a  very  large  share  of  new  openings. 
Will  they  ?  Do  they  really  care  enough  about  extending 
their  businesses  to  do  so  ? 

That  is  the  only  question,  and  it  is  one  which  they  alone 
can,  and  soon,  we  hope,  must  answer  ;  one  way  or  the  other. 
If  they  do  not  want  new  business  or  wish  that  old  business 
should  come  back  to  them,  there  is  no  more  to  be  said.  And 
no  more  grumbling  to  be  indulged  in  about  the  proportionate 
falling  back  of  British  trade  in  South  America. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  United  States,  the  full  manu- 
facturing activities  of  which  remain  unimpaired  by  the  with- 
drawal of  labour  for  military  purposes  and  the  output  of 
which  is  not  absorbed  to  so  great  an  extent  as  it  is  with  us 
for  war  material,  have  for  that  reason  already  a  great  start 
of  Great  Britain  in  all  foreign  markets.  To  this  objection  I 
would  reply  that  the  time  for  the  struggle  for  the  Argentine 
and  Uruguayan  markets  is  hardly  yet;  because  climatic 
accident  still  recently  produced  results  which,  coupled  with 
the  falling  on  them  of  the  shadow  of  the  Great  Terror, 
suspended  their  purchasing  power.  Two  very  lean  years  of 
cereal  production  due  to  weather,  the  occurrence  of  two 
consecutive  seasons  of  which  is  without  parallel  in  these 
countries'  history,  were  followed  by  another  perilously 
rainy  harvest  time  complicated  by  shortage  of  harvest 
labour  due  to  war  risks,  and  imagined  risks,  of  the  transport 
of  the  usual  army  of  Italian  harvesters  who  (like  the  Golon- 
drinas — swallows — after  which  they  are  nicknamed  in  South 


110    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

America)  annually  go  to  Argentina  and  Uruguay^  and  return 
to  Italy  after  the  harvest  has  been  got  in.  These  causes 
temporarily  paralysed  Argentine  and  Uniguayan  com- 
mercial activity  by,  as  has  been  said,  suspending  the  pur- 
chasing powers  of  both. 

But  with  the  productive  recovery  ^  of  these  countries  with 
their  enormous  natural  endowments  and  producing  as  they 
do  all  the  foodstuffs  that  the  populations  of  poor  war- 
trampled  Europe  need  most,  what  a  call  for  all  kinds  of 
agricultural  machinery  will  come  from  them  in  return  for 
their  meat  and  cereals  and  in  order  that  more  and  more  land 
may  be  laid  under  contribution  for  the  production  of  these 
primarily  necessary  supplies  !  Failing  other  labour  sources, 
an  augmented  stream  of  Italian  "  swallow  "  and  permanent 
emigration  will  set  out  for  the  River  Plate,  wealth  will 
develop  on  both  shores  of  that  river,  and  with  wealth  the 
demand  for  all  the  manufactured  things  to  the  desire  for 
which  wealth  gives  rise.  Hardware,  cutlery,  cotton  and 
woollen  cloths,  electrical  appliances  and  material ;  the  host 
of  things  which  Britain  makes  and  Germany  once  sold  will 
come  into  increasing  demand  in  South  America  with  the 
spring  of  the  new  era  on  which  the  whole  civilized  world  will 
enter  when  the  blackness  of  devastation  shall  have  passed 
and  the  evil  which  created  it  be  rendered  powerless  for 
further  ruinous  crime. 

Would  that  the  millions  of  able-bodied  men  murdered  by 
this  war  could  have  been  utilized  instead  as  an  agricultural 
expeditionary  force  on  the  shores  of  the  River  Plate  !  They 
and  their  children  and  the  world  would  have  been  the  richer 
for  their  labour  carried  out  under  conditions  as  happy  as 
their  present,  and  for  many  (alas  !)  past,  task  is  terrible. 
They  would  have  supplied  that  in  which  Argentina  and 
Uruguay  are  lacking,  namely,  the  human  element,  for  the 

^  The  entry  of  Italy  into  the  war  has  stopped  this. 
-  Already  well  begun.    As  will  be  seen  from  the  latest  statistics,  given 
in  another  chapter. 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  111 

development  of  their  natural  resources.  Countries  in  which 
vast  areas  of  land  yet  await  the  plough  for  cereal  cultivation 
and  the  improvement  of  their  natural  rough  pasturage  and 
other  vast  areas  of  rich  alluvial  soil  need  only  irrigation  to 
turn  them  into  a  terrestrial  paradise. 

Capital  never  is  and  never  will  be  wanting  for  good 
investment,  but  the  fund  of  human  labour  cannot  be  drawn 
upon  by  a  mere  signature.  And  the  daily  waste  of  thousands 
of  lives  for  the  full  activity  of  which  there  is  ample  room 
and  urgent  need  on  behalf  of  the  millions  remaining  is, 
sentiment  apart  and  from  a  commercial  point  of  view  alone, 
the  saddest  thing  in  War. 

Europe  needs  bread  and  meat  not  only  to  fulfil  her  normal 
needs  but  also  to  replace  her  own  interrupted  production  of 
these  prime  necessities  of  life.  The  River  Plate  countries  can 
produce  both  in  practically  unlimited  quantities  ;  provided 
only  that  they  can  obtain  the  necessary  labour  a  ghastly 
wastage  of  which  is  going  on  daily  in  Europe,  some  parts  of 
which  are  consequently  threatened  with  famine. 

Surely  if  civilization  be  anything  but  a  mere  theoretic 
expression  there  will  never  be  another  great  war  ! 

With  this  pious  hope  we  may  pass  to  a  more  concrete  sub j  ect , 
namely,  commercial  credit  on  both  sides  of  the  River  Plate. 

As  has  been  indicated  in  another  chapter,  Uruguay  enjoys 
a  more  literally  creditable  reputation  than  her  bigger  sister. 
The  causes  of  this  have  also  been  already  dealt  with. 

In  practice  one  can  but  advise  anyone  approached  by 
firms  in  either  country  to  do  what  it  may  be  taken  that  any 
ordinarily  prudent  man  of  business  would  do,  viz.  to  make 
due  enquiry  as  to  his  proposed  new  customer.  His  means  of 
doing  this  are  really  even  better  than  if  the  latter  were 
established  in  London  or  New  York,  since  the  commercial 
community  in  either  Argentina  or  Uruguay  is  comparatively 
small  and  consequently,  to  use  a  current  phrase,  almost  every- 
one there  knows  everyone  else  and  a  good  deal  about  him  and 
his  business. 


112    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Several  of  the  chief  banks  in  Buenos  Aires  and  Montevideo 
have  their  head  offices  in  London  and  all  have  branches  or 
accredited  correspondents  in  the  principal  European  and 
North  American  capitals  and  commercial  centres.^ 

The  wholesale  importing  houses  in  Argentina  and  Uruguay 
usually  give  ninety  days'  acceptances  for  imported  goods  and 
in  their  turn  give  six  months'  credit  to  their  retail  customers. 
This  arrangement  has  now  the  sanction  of  long  usage  based 
on  its  practically  being  a  division  of  the  burden  of  credit 
given  to  the  storekeeper  by  the  Importer  between  the  latter 
and  the  Exporter. 

The  system  of  banking  in  both  Argentina  and  Uruguay 
differs  little  from  that  obtaining  in  England  except  for  a 
certain  amount  of  good  single-name  paper  being  taken  on 
account  of  the  usually  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
business  and  standing  of  all  leading  firms  possessed  by  the 
commercial  community  generally. 

Rents  and  working  expenses,  including  special  traders' 
taxes,  in  the  Capitals  of  both  Republics  are  high,  but  the 
scale  of  profits  when  calculated  on  anything  like  a  reason- 
able turnover  will  in  most  cases  be  found  to  leave  a  balance 
in  favour  of  both  wholesale  and  retail  traders  which  would  be 
regarded  as  highly  satisfactory  by  their  European  and  North 
American  brethren.  In  fact,  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  if  a 
man  in  either  country  does  any  appreciable  bulk  of  business 
in  any  branch  of  commerce  or  trade  he  is  doing  what  else- 
where would  be  considered  as  very  good  business  indeed. 
When  rumour  assigns  shakiness  to  any  established  firm  it 
may  be  taken  as  certain  that  such  rumour  is  founded  on  tales 
of  speculation  outside  the  lines  on  which  that  firm's  true 
business  has  been  built  up.  There  seems  a  temptation  in- 
herent in  new  countries  for  men  who  have  earned  money  in 
businesses  they  understand  to  risk  it  in  other  speculations  of 
which  they  have  next  door  to  no  experience.     This  is,  of 

^  United  States  Banks  have  recently  opened  and  are  opening  branches 
in  Buenos  Aires  and  Montevideo. 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  113 

course,  a  phase  of  the  "  get  rich  quick "  fever  which 
frequently  attacks  the  young  inheritors  of  stable  businesses 
which  seem  to  them  too  slow  and  sure  to  be  interesting  or 
indeed  to  require  much  looking  after. 

At  one  time  the  Buenos  Aires  Stock  Exchange  was  re- 
sponsible for  a  large  number  of  victims  among  all  classes  of 
the  public,  but  of  late  years  the  public  has  fought  very  shy  of  it 
indeed ;  so  shy  in  fact  as  now  to  be  practically  unrepresented 
in  the  share  ring  of  that  Institution.  As  a  consequence  of  this 
abstention  the  few  brokers  and  professional  speculators  who 
daily  do  what  courtesy  perhaps  demands  that  one  should  call 
business  there  suggests  the  tale  of  the  island  the  inhabitants 
of  which  lived  simply  by  taking  in  each  other's  washing. 

Joking  apart,  however,  the  share  ring  in  the  Buenos  Aires 
Temple  of  Mammon  were  best  avoided  by  the  uninitiate. 
In  this  ring  there  is  always  one,  sometimes  two  (its  strength 
does  not  run  to  more),  media  of  pure  speculation  in  course  of 
manipulation  by  one  speculative  group  or  another.  The 
names  or  nature  of  these  media  do  not  really  seem  to  matter. 
They  vary.  Sometimes  they  may  be  the  shares  of  the  Dock 
Company  of  an  inchoate  Port,  sometimes  those  of  an  In- 
dustrial Company  with  vague  expectations.  Indeed,  vague- 
ness which  may  be  tinged  by  rumour  and  imagination  with  a 
hue  dimly  resembling  that  of  impending  rich  surprise  is 
almost  essential  to  the  initiation  of  this  kind  of  gamble. 

The  shares  are  bulled  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  even 
possible  value  for  a  little  while  and  then  no  more  is  heard 
of  them  ;  and  other  very  similar  ones  reign  in  their  stead  in 
the  sensational  place  on  the  blackboard,  on  which  all  bargains 
during  each  day  are  chalked  up  as  they  are  called  out  by  the 
parties  making  them. 

The  end  of  these  really  stillborn  booms  is  mystery.  Wlio 
are  the  unfortunate  last  in  ?  Strangers,  doubtless,  when 
there  are  any.  But  if  there  be  none,  as  is  the  case  more 
frequently  than  not  ?  One  hears  vague  talk  of  Paris  and 
other  European  capitals  and  then  silence  for  ever  more. 
8 


114    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Anyhow,  the  stranger,  for  whom  this  book  is  chiefly 
written,  would,  if  he  took  a  hand  in  any  one  of  these  games, 
soon  find  out  that  though  he  might  see  the  price  of  the 
shares  he  had  purchased  mounting  gaily  up  on  the  black- 
board like  mercury  in  the  tropics  he  could  never  realize  to 
any  appreciable  extent.  Did  he  start  to  sell,  then  all  the 
weak  little  bulls  of  whom  his  co-speculators  would  be  com- 
posed, people  to  whom  ten  dollars  a  day  one  way  or  the 
other  makes  all  the  difference  in  their  domestic  budget, 
would  rush  to  sell  also  out  of  sheer  fright,  and  down  would 
go  the  market  on  him  like  a  guillotine.  At  the  finish  he 
would  be  left  with  a  very  large  proportion  of  his  probably 
not  over-valuable  holding  ;  of  which  he  would  have  little 
further  news  than  notices  regarding  proposed  reconstruction 
schemes,  etc. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  imagined  that  the  Buenos  Aires 
Stock  Exchange  is  by  any  means  exclusively  devoted  to  such 
work  as  that  just  indicated.  On  the  contrary,  many  Bank 
and  Industrial  shares  are  also  quoted  and  the  other,  the 
Securities,  ring  is  just  as  genuinely  serious  as  the  gambhng 
part  of  the  share  ring  is  meretricious.  The  chief  securities 
dealt  in  in  the  former  are  the  Bonds  of  the  National 
Cedulas,  as  "  gilt  edged  "  a  security  as  could  well  be  wished  for. 

These  Cedulas  are  Bonds  issued  by  the  National  Hypothe- 
cary Bank,  an  Institution  of  the  National  Government,  as 
against  mortgages  of  freehold  property  in  the  Republic ;  the 
method  of  their  issue  being,  shortly,  as  follows. 

An  intending  Mortgagor  lodges  a  proposal  with  the 
Bank;  on  which  his  title  is  examined  and  the  property 
offered  valued  by  Government  experts  appointed  for  each 
purpose. 

The  result  of  the  examination  of  title  being  satisfactory, 
the  Bank  states  the  amount  for  which  on  its  valuation,  fixed 
after  leaving  ample  margin  for  possible  depreciation,  it  will 
accept  the  mortgage. 

But  the  Bank  has  no  cash  funds,  and  therefore  issues 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  115 

Bonds,  carrying  interest  at  6%,  and  subject  to  annual 
amortization,  for  the  amount  agreed  to  be  granted  to  the 
Mortgagor.  The  latter,  if  he  require  cash,  as  is  usually  the 
case  (most  of  such  borrowings  being  actually  effected  with 
the  objects  for  which  the  Bank  was  founded,  viz.  improve- 
ments of  the  property  mortgaged,  extension  of  holding,  or 
purchase  of  stock  and  implements),  must  take  his  bonds  to 
the  Stock  Exchange  for  sale.  For  them  there  is  always  a  free 
and  open  market,  the  price  obtainable  usually  varying  only 
according  to  ordinary  accidents  of  supply  and  demand. 

Many  brokers  hold  standing  orders  for  these  Bonds,  at  a 
price,  for  Europe  (before  the  War  Antwerp  was  always  a 
buyer  at  a  certain  level).  The  only  really  appreciable 
downward  fluctuations  of  this  security  are  of  very  short 
duration,  an  hour  or  two  at  most,  and  are  due  to  what  can 
only  be  condemned  as  the  inconsiderate  action  of  the 
Directors  of  the  Hypothecary  Bank.  That  is  to  say,  the 
Bank's  acceptances  of  Mortgages  are  sometimes  allowed  to 
accumulate  and  then,  all  of  a  sudden,  the  Directors  seem  to 
get  to  work  and  sign  and  issue  huge  batches  of  Bonds. 
Not  only  do  most  of  these  find  their  way  to  the  Stock  Ex- 
change, in  consequence  of  anticipatory  orders  lodged  with 
brokers  by  absent  or  upcountry  mortgagors,  but  many  such 
people  leave  selling  orders  with  the  Bank  itself. 

The  result  of  all  this  frequently  is  that  one  fine  morning  or 
afternoon  cartloads  of  these  Bonds  arrive  on  the  Stock 
Exchange  and  flood  the  market,  in  spite  of  all  the  market 
can  do  with  the  best  intention  of  sustaining  prices. 

Soon,  however,  the  mass  is  absorbed  by  the  home  and 
foreign  demand,  and  the  little  crisis  which  could  never  have 
occurred  except  through  the  bad  management  above  de- 
scribed, is  over  and  normal  prices  mle  again. 

All  this  relates  to  the  current  issues  of  these  Bonds,  the 
"  Cedula  Argentina  "  as  they  are  now  called. 

Formerly  they  were  issued  in  series,  each  of  which  was 
distinguished  by  an  alphabetical  letter.     The  last  of  these 


116    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

lettered  series  was  "  L."  This  system  of  series  had  incon- 
veniences, inasmuch  as  the  regulations  under  which  they 
were  issued  prescribed  redemption  in  Bonds  of  the  same 
series,  which  interfered  with  entirely  free  dealing ;  some  of  the 
eariier  series  being  now  only  obtainable  at  a  high  premium 
on  account  of  the  buyer's  need  of  them  to  make  up  a  parcel. 

The  Securities  ring  also  deals  in  debenture  and  other 
Bonds — National,  Provincial  and  Municipal.  The  only 
speculation  in  which  it  usually  indulges  being  of  the  very 
safest  kind;  in  regard  to  which,  indeed,  the  term  invest- 
ment would  better  apply. 

The  side  of  the  large  Hall  of  the  Exchange  opposite  to 
that  occupied  by  the  Stock  and  Share  rings  is  now  tenanted 
by  the  "  Bolsa  de  Cereales,"  an  institution  the  recent 
creation  of  which  was  due  to  the  necessity,  arising  chiefly 
from  the  rapid  developments  of  the  milling  industry,  for 
dealing  in  "  futures  "  in  cereal  production. 

On  the  old  Once  Corn  Exchange  such  dealings  were  and 
still  are  tabu,  as  savouring  dangerously  of  the  Chicago 
"  Pit,"  and  much  heated  discussion  took  place  before  the 
new  Exchange  was  at  length  authorized  to  register  trans- 
actions in  futures.  The  discussion  was  useful  inasmuch  as  it 
brought  about  the  framing  of  stringent  regulations  against 
the  more  ruinous  forms  of  gambling  in  grain.  In  the  result, 
the  new  Institution  works  very  well  and  fulfils  its  ostensible 
purpose  of  assuring  the  miller  against  produce  being  held 
against  him  at  times  when  he  is  under  obligation  to  dehver 
flour.  Thus,  it  has  prevented  instead  of  encouraging  at 
least  one  vicious  class  of  operations.  Formerly,  when  all 
dealing  in  grain  futures  was  illegal,  the  miller  was  con- 
tinually at  the  mercy  of  operators  in  the  cereal  markets. 

The  Institution  of  the  new  Market  was  imperatively 
needed  on  account  of  the  huge  development  and  value  of 
the  milling  industry. 

For  ordinary  dealings  the  Once  cereal  market  still  holds 
its  own. 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  117 

THE   BUENOS   AIRES    STOCK   EXCHANGE 

One  needs  some  courage  to  write  candidly  about  this 
institution,  the  more  especially  if  one  hopes  to  enter  it 
again. 

The  building  itself  is  the  property  of  a  company  from 
which  the  members  rent  it.  Part  of  it  is  now,  as  has  been 
indicated,  sublet  to  the  members  of  the  new  Cereal  Ex- 
change. 

One  side  of  the  rotunda — the  great  inner  Hall  of  the 
"  Bolza  " — is  therefore  now  tenanted  by  the  dealers  in  stocks 
and  shares,  and  the  other,  facing  it,  by  those  occupied  with 
grain.  Each  exchange  has  two  large  blackboards  on  which 
prices  are  chalked  up  by  attendants  as  deals  are  called  by 
the  parties  making  them.  These  prices  then  become  official ; 
and  their  genuineness  is  vouched  by  the  fact  of  their  having 
been  called  by  members  of  the  Exchange,  who  are  held 
responsible  by  the  Committee  for  the  bona  fides  of  these 
announcements. 

The  rules  are  now  very  strict  on  the  question  of  calling  of 
bona  fide  deahngs  only.  At  one  time  the  announcement  and 
consequent  chalking  up  of  fictitious  deals  (called  "  gatos,"  or, 
as  we  might  say,  "  wild  cats  ")  became  so  scandalously 
frequent  and  unblushing  that  a  stop  had  to  be  put  to  a 
malpractice  which  deceived  the  public,  since  all  prices 
chalked  up  are  published  in  the  daily  papers. 

The  first,  usually,  in  regard  to  both  the  magnitude  and 
importance  of  the  dealings  recorded  on  it,  of  these  black- 
boards or  "  slates,"  as  they  are  called,  is  that  reserved  for 
transactions  in  Government  and  other  important  stocks  ; 
the  second  being  that  devoted  to  shares. 

Thus  the  first  board  is  mostly  filled  with  records  of  the 
numbers  and  prices  of  National  Cedulas  dealt  in,  and  the 
second  with  those  of  whatever  one  or  two  kinds  of  shares 
may  for  the  time  being  be  in  fashion  for  what  one  may 
bluntly  call  gambling.    For  gambling,  simply,  is  the  end  of 


118    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

almost  everything  in  the  shape  of  speculation  in  the  ephemer- 
ally  chosen  media.  It  is  in  regard  to  this  gambhng  that  the 
note  of  warning  to  the  stranger  already  sounded  may  be 
repeated  here.  The  really  Argentine  public  has  long  ago 
had  its  fingers  sufficiently  often  and  severely  burnt  to  have 
decided  to  give  all  Bolza  speculation  a  wide  berth.  And 
here  one  is  brought  face  to  face  with  a  mystery  which  the 
present  writer  has  as  yet  been  wholly  unable  to  explain  in 
any  fully  satisfactory  way. 

This  mystery  is  that,  given  the  fact  that  the  contributions 
of  the  public  to  Bolza  gambling  have  since  long  ago  become 
a  negligible  quantity,  it  seems  clear  that  such  speculation 
must  be  confined  to  a  limited  group  of  Bolza  operators. 

How,  therefore,  is  it  worth  the  while  of  any  of  these 
operators  to  survive  for  long  as  such  ?  They  are  mostly,  if 
not  all,  men  of  small  capital,  very  small  in  many  cases,  yet 
there  they  are,  day  after  day,  busily  occupied  in  attributing 
usually  fictitious  values  to  the  shares  of  one,  or  at  most  two 
(for  the  time  being)  companies.  Up  go  the  prices  of  such 
shares,  rising  each  day  to  giddier  heights,  till  at  last  like 
balloons  they  disappear  from  sight  and  another  set  of  shares 
takes  their  place  as  material  for  a  boom.  Who  is  the  last 
man  or  men  left  with  shares  at  top  price  ?  And  what  on 
earth  does  he  do  with  them  ?  These  be  questions  the 
answers  to  which  are  hidden  by  a  secrecy  the  completeness 
and  continuity  of  which  do  credit  to  the  initiate  few  whose 
common  interest  it  is  to  maintain  it. 

The  only  protection  of  these  people  is  a  mutual  defence 
against  the  common  enemy,  similar  to  that  adopted  by  pro- 
fessional buyers  at  an  ordinary  auction  against  any  innocent 
amateur  who  may  stray  into  their  midst.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  mere  presence  of  a  known  "  bear  "  among  these  folk, 
completely  paralyses  all  action  on  their  part  until  his  back 
is  turned  again.  The  writer  now  has  in  his  mind's  eye  a  well- 
known  figure,  that  of  a  powerful  bear  who  was  the  terror  of 
the  speculative  markets  in  the  golden  days  when  the  public 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  119 

still  played  the  game  and  all  went  merrily  except  for  his 
malevolent  influence.  He  alone  could  frown  all  prices  down ; 
and  he  once  held  them  down  against  the  whole  of  the  furious 
remainder  of  the  Exchange.  It  was  a  never-to-be-forgotten 
conflict,  from  which  he  emerged  victorious  and  with  a  name 
at  which  even  the  puny  bulls  of  to-day  still  tremble.  Though 
be  it  said,  he  now  does  little  but  lend  money  to  those  whom 
circumstances,  or  still,  occasionally,  he  himself,  have  forced 
to  carry  over.  Few  Bolza  members  will  fail  to  identify  him 
from  even  this  slight  reference  to  his  fame.  The  heyday  of 
the  Buenos  Stock  Exchange  was  that  immediately  preceding 
the  passing  of  the  "  Conversion  "  law  which  fixed  a  ratio 
between  gold  and  paper  and  thus  ended  the  speculation  in 
gold  which  had  grown  all  too  vigorous  on  wide  fluctuations. 
After  that,  wild  cats,  resorted  to  as  the  next  best  stimulant, 
quickly  undermined  the  constitution  of  the  Bolza  and 
frightened  the  public  ;  permanently,  it  would  still  seem, 
from  its  precincts  as  far  as  gambling  speculation  is  con- 
cerned. Such  speculation,  in  any  magnitude,  has  been  dead 
since  1906  ;  in  consequence  of  the  collapse  at  that  time  of  a 
gold  fever  boom  of  which  a  shoal  of  doomed  alluvial  dredging 
Companies  were  part  cause  and  part  effect. 

Nowadays,  the  real  business,  of  which  there  is  a  large  and 
constant  volume,  done  on  the  Buenos  Aires  Stock  Exchange 
is  in  National  "  Cedulas."  This  business  has  gradually 
gravitated  into  the  hands  of  a  few  large  brokers.  The  only 
drawback  to  these  Bonds  is  their  name,  which  might  lead 
the  ignorant  in  matters  South  American  to  confuse  them 
with  the  Provincial  (Province  of  Buenos  Aires)  Cedulas,  the 
corrupt  mismanagement  of  which  caused  a  great  scandal 
some  years  ago.  Still  "  Cedula  "  means  a  "  Bond,"  and  it 
would,  after  all,  be  idle  to  wish  to  abolish  the  latter  word 
only  because  some  English  Bonds  may  have  proved  un- 
worthy of  the  prestige  usually  attaching  to  that  designation. 

The  question  has  often  been  raised  as  to  whether,  on  the 
wording  of  the  guarantee  endorsed  on  National  Cedulas,  the 


120    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

National  Government  is  responsible  for  repayment  of  the 
principal  as  well  as  the  interest  on  them.  This,  however, 
amounts  almost  to  a  quibble  ;  of  little,  if  any,  more  than 
abstract  interest.  The  amortization  of  these  Bonds  is  certainly 
guaranteed  in  like  manner  as  is  the  interest  on  them,  and 
only  some  tremendous  crisis,  now  unimaginable,  could  so 
wreck  the  whole  territory  of  the  RepubHc  that  land  values 
throughout  that  territory  would  simultaneously  fall  to  an 
extent  which  could  render  impossible  the  redemption  of 
mortgages  granted  in  the  first  place  with  a  very  liberal 
margin  between  the  actual  market  value  of  the  land  and  the 
amounts  of  the  Bonds  issued  on  its  security.  For,  it  should 
be  noted  in  this  connection,  a  Cedula  is  not  issued  by  the 
Bank  on  the  Security  of  such  or  such  designated  property, 
it  is  issued  on  the  security,  guaranteed  by  the  Bank  after 
due  investigation,  of  all  the  mortgages  held  by  it.  So  that, 
in  effect,  even  if  the  whole  of  a  Province  were  to  be  engulfed 
by  an  earthquake,  the  security  of  none  of  the  Bank's  Cedulas 
would  be  affected  by  the  loss  since,  at  the  margin  reserved 
by  the  Bank,  all  the  remainder  of  the  lands  on  which  it  holds 
mortgages  would  still  be  ample  security  for  all  its  bonds. 

The  reader  who  is  already  well  acquainted  with  these 
matters  must  forgive  me  for  thus  setting  them  out  in  so 
obvious  a  way.  I  ask  him  to  believe  that  there  are  still 
very  many  holders  of  Argentine  National  Cedulas  possessed 
of  only  the  vaguest  ideas  of  how  their  Bonds  came  into 
existence,  and  practically  none  as  to  the  real  nature  of  the 
security  for  them,  except  a  general  sort  of  notion  that  they 
are  Argentine  Government  Bonds. 

As  will  be  seen,  the  facts  justify  my  dictum  of  a  few  pages 
back  that  these  Bonds  really  offer  as  gilt-edged  a  security 
as  anyone  could  wish  for. 

Other  securities  most  commonly  dealt  in  in  the  Securities 
side  of  the  Market  are  "  Credito  Argentino,"  National 
Internal  debt,  the  "  Premier  Security  "  of  the  Country,  as 
it  has  been  called  ;    and  some  Provincial  and  Municipal 


FINANCE  AND  COMMERCE  121 

Bonds.  On  the  share  side,  the  shares  of  the  various  Banks 
are  usually  the  subject  of  the  most  really  important  quota- 
tions on  the  slate. 

Many  first-class  Argentine  securities  and  shares  seldom 
come  on  the  market. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
RAILWAYS,    PORTS    AND    IMMIGRATION 

RAILWAYS 

IT  is  often  said  that  the  foreign,  mostly  British, 
railway  community  on  the  River  Plate  constitutes  an 
Imperium  in  Imperio. 

There  is  no  denying  the  great  influence  of  that  community, 
but  that  influence  has  been  rendered  inevitable  and  is 
wholly  justified  by  the  very  large  amount  of  capital  which 
the  railway  companies  have  at  stake  in  these  countries  ; 
amounting  in  Argentina  to  some  £200,000,000  and  in  Uru- 
guay some  £12,000,000,  making  a  total  of  some  212  millions 
sterling.  Of  this  total  a  very  large  proportion  in  Argentina 
and  the  whole  in  Uruguay  is  British. 

The  total  length  of  railway  lines  in  Argentina  is  close 
on  21,000  miles,  and  in  Uruguay  close  on  1050  miles. 

The  predominant  gauge  in  Argentina  is  that  in  use  by 
the  four  "  great  "  railway  companies  of  that  country,  viz. 
the  Buenos  Aires  Western,  the  Central  Argentine,  the  Buenos 
Aires  Great  Southern  and  the  Buenos  Aires  Pacific,  that  is 
to  say,  the  broad,  5  feet  6  inches,  while  in  Uruguay  the 
great  railway  company  of  that  country,  the  Central  Uruguay 
of  Montevideo,  and  its  subsidiary  companies  use  the  Stand- 
ard Gauge,  4  feet  8|  inches. 

Until  1909  each  of  the  Argentine  railway  companies  was 
(as  the  Uruguayan  still  are)  controlled  by  the  terms  of  its 
particular  concession  or  concessions.  In  that  year,  how- 
ever, a  Law  was  passed,  usually  called  the  "  Mitre  Law," 
after  its  initiator,  the  late  Senor  Emilio  Mitre  (an  eminent 


I 


RAILWAYS,  PORTS  AND  IMMIGRATION    123 

Argentine  statesman  and  son  of  the  famous  General  Mitre, 
perhaps  Argentina's  greatest  President  and  Historian),  by 
which  all  then  existing  companies  agreeing  to  be  bound  by 
its  provisions  should  be  exempt  from  all  National,  Pro- 
vincial and  Municipal  taxation  and  Import  Duties  on 
material  until  the  year  1947  ;  they,  on  their  part,  to  pay 
to  the  National  Government  a  single  tax  of  3%  on  their 
net  earnings,  the  amount  of  such  earnings  to  be  ascertained 
by  deducting  10%  (for  working  expenses)  from  their  gross 
receipts. 

Only  one  Company  was  then  enjoying  even  more  favour- 
able terms  under  its  original  concession  than  those  given 
by  the  Mitre  Law ;  but  as  that  concession  was  approaching 
the  time  of  its  expiration  it  would  have  been  ill-judged  on 
the  part  of  the  Company  to  have  shown  itself  recalcitrant 
to  the  evident  wishes  of  the  Argentine  Government. 

Therefore  it  exercised  its  option  in  favour  of  the  Mitre 
Law,  as  did  all  the  other  Companies. 

Though  the  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  Railway  Companies 
rely  for  their  usually  very  handsome  profits  much  more  on 
haulage  of  Cereals  and  Live  Stock  than  on  their  passenger 
traffic,  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  latter  is  in  any  way 
neglected  by  them.  Quite  the  contrary  is  the  case.  Possibly 
nowhere  else  in  the  world  (except,  perhaps,  in  Russia)  is 
railway  travelling  as  comfortable  as  on  the  River  Plate, 
either  as  regards  day  or  night  accommodation  or  catering, 
the  latter  at  moderate  prices.  All  is  roomy,  well  arranged 
and  extremely  comfortable  ;  but  the  trains  de  luxe  of  the 
River  Plate  are  those  which  the  Buenos  Aires  Great  Southern 
Company  runs  to  and  from  Mar-del-Plata  in  the  season, 
with  Pullman  Drawing-room  and  Dining  Cars.  The  per- 
manent way  is  good  and  the  running  smooth  over  almost 
the  whole  of  the  two  Republics.  Trains  going  to  the  hotter 
regions  are  provided  with  baths. 

Besides  British,  considerable  French  and  Belgian  capital 
is  invested  in  Argentine  railways.    The  "  Province  of  Santa 


124    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Fe  "  and  the  "  Province  of  Buenos  Aires  "  railways  are 
controlled  by  French  Companies. 

Incidentally  it  may  be  mentioned  that  in  recent  years 
most  of  the  shares  of  the  "  Anglo- Argentine  "  Tramways 
Company  (which  owns  the  principal  tramway  system  of  the 
Capital)  had  found  their  way  to  Belgium. 

A  short  while  ago  a  United  States  Syndicate,  deemed 
powerful  and  feared  as  menacing  a  monopoly,  obtained 
control  of  some  of  the  River  Plate  lines,  notably  those  of 
the  Central  Cordoba,  Santa  Fe  and  Entre  Rios  Companies, 
under  certain  arrangements.  This  Syndicate  has  since, 
however,  been  unable  to  command  the  capital  necessary 
to  fulfil  its  part  of  those  arrangements,  and,  practically,  the 
control  of  the  lines  has  now  reverted  to  the  original  Com- 
panies, the  first  and  last  named  of  which  are  British. 

The  Argentine  National  Government  has  during  the  past 
few  years  built  and  has  under  construction  several  lines 
intended  to  develop  districts  which  as  yet  do  not  offer 
sufficient  temptation  to  private  Companies. 

No  fresh  construction  has  been  begun  in  either  country 
since  the  outbreak  of  the  War,  the  Government  and  various 
Companies  confining  themselves  only  to  such  construction 
work  as  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the  completion  of 
extensions  already  commenced. 

Railway  construction  in  these  countries  does  not  usually 
offer  any  great  difficulties.  The  triumphs  of  River  Plate 
railway  engineering  were  the  line  of  the  Buenos  Aires 
Pacific  Railway  up  and  through  the  Andes  and  some  parts 
of  the  lines  of  the  Entre  Rios  Railway  Company  in  parts 
of  that  Province  in  which  for  long  it  seemed  impossible 
to  discover  a  route  amid  the  marshy  or  spongy  soil.  Another 
such  triumph  will  probably  occur  when  the  Buenos  Aires 
Great  Southern  Railway  penetrates  the  Andes,  as  it  no 
doubt  will  do  one  day,  much  further  south  than  the  Buenos 
Aires  Pacific  line. 


RAILWAYS,  PORTS  AND  IMMIGRATION    125 

PORTS 

The  River  Plate  Republics  are  very  accessible  to  foreign 
Commerce ;  possessing  Atlantic  Coasts,  the  River  Plate  and 
its  two  great  navigable  tributaries,  the  Uruguay  and  the 
Parana, 

The  Port  of  Buenos  Aires  ranks  seventh  among  the  ports 
of  the  world  in  respect  of  the  value  of  merchandise  which 
enters  and  leaves  it,  and  second  in  America,  that  is  to  say, 
coming  immediately  after  New  York.  The  next  most 
important  Argentine  ports  are  those  of  Rosario,  Bahia 
Blanca  and  La  Plata  ;  after  which  come  Santa  Fe,  San 
Nicholas,  Campana  and  Zarate,  and  many  others  on  the 
Parana  and  Rio  Gallegos,  Puerto  Madryn,  San  Antonio 
and  others  on  the  South  Atlantic.  A  new  Port  is  in  course 
of  construction  at  Mar-del-Plata. 

Montevideo  only  ranks  in  point  of  cargo  values  just  before 
Bahia  Blanca  ;  that  is  to  say,  with  some  ;^i5,ooo,ooo  as 
against  the  £115,500,000  trade  of  the  Port  of  Buenos  Aires. ^ 
Uruguay  is,  however,  preparing  in  this  regard  for  her 
further  development  by  large  new  port  works  which  have 
been  under  construction  for  some  years  past.  On  the 
Uruguay  she  has  Fray  Bentos,  Paysandii  (both  largely 
concerned  with  meat  extract  and  preserved  meats  export), 
Salto  and  Santa  Rosa  ;  and  on  the  River  Plate,  besides 
Montevideo,  Colonia  and  Maldonado ;  besides  several 
relatively  unimportant  ports  having  as  yet  but  scanty  or 
no  effective  accommodation  for  vessels.  This  could  also 
have  been  said  of  many  of  Argentina's  minor  ports  not  so 
very  long  ago.  Port  accommodation  in  Uruguay  will  follow 
the  increase  and  demands  of  her  export  produce  and  the 
requirements  of  her  consequently  enhanced  prosperity. 

^  These  approximate  figures  relate  to  the  three  years  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  commencement  of  the  war. 


126    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

IMMIGRATION 

As  has  been  noticed  under  the  heading  "  Racial  Ele- 
ments," most  of  the  immigration  to  the  River  Plate  has 
hitherto  passed  Montevideo  and  landed  at  Buenos  Aires, 
Over  300,000  immigrants  landed  in  Argentina  in  1913 ; 
composed  chiefly,  and  in  point  of  numerical  importance,  in 
the  following  order,  of  Spaniards,  Italians,  "  Turcos " 
(Syrians  or  Levantines),  Russians  (mostly  Jewish),  French, 
Germans,  Austrians,  Portuguese  and  British.  British 
arrivals  on  the  River  Plate  consist  chiefly  of  the  salaried 
classes ;  who,  not  being  classed  as  immigrants,  do  not 
appear  on  the  Government  returns  from  which  the  above 
figures  are  taken.  The  only  other  noteworthy  point  about 
Argentine  immigration  is  that  now  the  Spanish  element 
largely  predominates  instead  of,  as  formerly,  the  Italian. 


CHAPTER   IX 
GENERAL  STATISTICS 

DURING  the  past  twenty  years  the  foreign  trade  of 
Argentina  and  Uruguay  (especially  that  of  the 
former  country)  has  developed  very  largely  and 
rapidly  ;  its  increase  during  the  decade  1904-1913  being, 
in  the  case  of  Argentina,  io8|%  and  in  that  of  Uruguay 
104%.  The  increase  in  both  cases  is  considerably  greater 
than  that  of  the  trade  of  any  other  South  American  country  ; 
as  will  be  seen  from  the  following  figures  : — 

$ 

Argentina.  1913  996,215,998 
1904  477,985.737 
gold         518,230,261      io8'5%  increase. 

Uruguay.  1913  119,500,000 
1904  58,481,343 

Uruguayan  61,018,657     104%  ,, 


Chile.  191 3        725,828,254 

1904        370,149,864 

Chilian  355T678^9o       94*5% 

Brazil.  1913     1,976.733.388 

1904     1,288,955,306 

milreis       687,778,082       54%  „ 

The  figure  $996,215,998  gold  if  divided  by  7,731,257, 
representing  the  population  of  Argentina,  gives  $129  gold, 
or  £25  IIS.  lod.,  value  of  trade  per  inhabitant  of  that 
country  ;  a  very  high  figure  indeed.  The  value  of  the  trade 
of  Uruguay  per  head  of  her  population  is  £21  3s.  6d. 

In  1913  Argentina  alone  provided  the  markets  of  the 

127 


128 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


United  Kingdom  with  cereals  and  meat  to  the  value  of 
£34,500,000  of  a  total  of  £92,300,000,  or  nearly  37|%  of  its 
total  supplies.  During  the  same  year  Uruguay  sent  meat 
to  the  United  Kingdom  to  the  value  of  some  £202,000 
sterling. 

UNITED   KINGDOM   IMPORTS   IN    1913 

Wheat  i  i 


I. 

From 

United  States 

.   13.953.072 

2. 

,^ 

Canada  .... 

.     8,803,949 

3- 

,, 

British  East  Indies 

.     7,998,552 

4- 

,, 

Argentine  Republic 

.     6,149,195 

5- 

,, 

Australia 

.     4,426,629 

6. 

^^ 

Russia    .... 

.      1,984,964 

" 

Other  countries 

Maize 

544,539 

43.860,900 

I. 

From 

Argentine  Republic 

.    10,851,874 

2. 

j^ 

United  States 

•     1,923,321 

3- 

,, 

Russia    .... 

489.993 

4- 

,, 

Roumania 

286,600 

5- 

,, 

Canada  .... 

64,773 

" 

Other  countries 
Linseed, 

153.781 

13.770.342 

I. 

From 

Argentine  Republic 

.     2,398,629 

2. 

,, 

British  East  Indies 

.     1,564,428 

3- 

„ 

Russia    .... 

228,167 

4- 

j^ 

United  States 

98,366 

" 

Other  countries 
Chilled  and  Frozen  Meat 

.     2,905,803 

7.195.393 

I. 

From 

Argentine  Republic 

.   12,815,002 

2. 

J, 

Australia 

.     2.133,951 

3- 

,, 

Uruguay 

706,816 

4- 

,, 

New  Zealand  . 

393.429 

5- 

,, 

United  States 

3. 119 

" 

Other  countries 
Frozen  Mutton 

11.914 

16,064,231 

I. 

From 

New  Zealand . 

.     4,965,310 

2. 

J, 

Australia 

.     3,128,439 

3- 

,, 

Argentine  Republic 

.      1,908,255 

4- 

jj 

Uruguay 

303,528 

" 

Other  countries 
Sundry  Meats  Frozen 

293.133 

10,598,665 

I. 

From 

Argentine  Republic 

455,561 

2. 

,, 

United  States 

155.966 

" 

Other  countries 

Total 

216,526 

828,053 

. 

92,317,584 

The  value  of  the  U.K.  Imports  from  Argentine  and  Uruguay  was  con- 
siderably increased  during  1915- 


GENERAL  STATISTICS 


129 


In  1913  values  of  the  exports  of  the  United  Kingdom  to 
the  four  most  commercially  important  countries  of  South 
America  were  : —  ,  ,  ,. 

£,  sterling. 

To  the  Argentine  Republic   .....  23,430,246 

,,    Brazil    ........  13,015,769 

„   Chile      ........  6,366,944 

,,   Uruguay         .......  3,027,568 

Of  the  total  value  of  the  sales  of  the  United  Kingdom  in 
the  whole  of  South  America,  Argentina  received  45%, 
amounting  to  £52,033,764  sterling. 

POSITIONS  HELD  BY  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY  RESPECTIVELY 
IN  THE  EXPORT  TRADE  OF  THE  UNITED  KINGDOM  ACCORDING 
TO  BRITISH  OFFICIAL  PUBLICATIONS.   1913. 


Value  of  exports  from  Great 

Per 
capita 

Britain  to : 

£ 

Population. 

£ 

I   East  Indies    . 

■     71.738,755 

I 

New  Zealand 

1,028,160 

"•45 

2  Germany 

.     60,573,457 

2 

Australasia  . 

4,802,174 

7-88 

3  United  States 

59,536,352 

3 

South  Africa 

5.973,394 

4-08 

4  France 

40,876,731 

4 

Canada 

7,758,000 

3-51 

5  Australasia    . 

37.852,929 

5 

Holland 

6,114,302 

3-37 

6  Russia  . 

27,705,660 

6 

Argentina  . 

7,731,257 

303 

7  Canada 

27.235,355 

7 

Belgium 

.       7.571.387 

2-73 

8  South  Africa 

24,373,018 

8 

Norway 

2,437.646 

2-73 

9  Argentina    . 

23.430,246 

9 

Uruguay     . 

1.112,000 

2-72 

10  Belgium 

20,667,519 

10 

Denmark 

2.775.076 

2-29 

II   Holland 

20,605,137 

11 

Chile   . 

3.505,317 

i'90 

12  Italy 

15,620,393 

12 

Sweden 

5,638,583 

1-62 

13  China    . 

15,016,023 

13 

West  Indies 

1.709,732 

1-59 

14  Japan   . 

14.837,948 

14 

Switzerland 

3.781.430 

1-30 

15  Brazil   . 

13.015.769 

15 

France 

39,601,509 

1-03 

16  New  Zealand 

11,776,261 

16 

Greece 

2,666,000 

0-97 

17  Egypt  . 

9,966,948 

17 

Germany 

64.925.993 

0-93 

18  Sweden 

9,241,874 

18 

Egypt 

11,287,359 

0-88 

19  Spain    . 

8,655,196 

19 

Portugal 

5,960,056 

0-66 

20  Turkey 

7.992,712 

20 

United  States 

91,972,266 

0-65 

21  West  Africa  . 

7,166.222 

21 

Costa  Rica  . 

388,266 

0-63 

22  Norway 

6.669,089 

22 

Brazil 

23.070.969 

0-55 

23  Chile     . 

6,366,946 

23 

East  Africa  . 

2,651,892 

0-54 

24  Denmark 

6,340,773 

24 

Italy    . 

34,671,377 

0-45 

25  Austria-Hungary 

5,786,077 

25 

Spain  . 

19.639,000 

0-44 

26  Switzerland    . 

5,106,764 

26 

Turkey 

21,273,900 

0-38 

27  Portugal 

3,935,802 

27 

West  Africa 

20,176,635 

0-35 

28  Uruguay 

3,027,568 

28 

Japan 

52,985,423 

0-28 

29  West  Indies  . 

2,716,545 

29 

East  Indies  . 

315,156,396 

0*23 

30  Greece  . 

2,597,227 

30 

Russia 

171,059,900 

0'i6 

31  Mexico 

2,549,265 

31 

Mexico 

15,063,207 

0'i6 

32  East  Africa    . 

1.443,859 

32 

Austria-Hungary 

49.458,421 

0-I2 

33  Costa  Rica     . 

247.093 

33 

China  . 

320,650,000 

0-05 

Total  including  other 

countries 

;^635.ii7,i34 

130 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


During  the  five  years  1908-1912  48|%  of  the  whole 
maize  imported  by  the  United  Kingdom  came  from  Argen- 
tina ;  or  only  a  little  less  than  the  total  quantity  of 
that  imported  from  the  United  States,  Roumania,  Russia, 
India,  Natal,  Canada,  Bulgaria  and  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope. 

In  respect  of  the  total  issue  of  Capital  in  the  United 
Kingdom  during  the  first  six  months  of  1914,  Argentina 
ranked  first  (with  £12,809,200  as  against  £12,244,100  which 
went  to  Russia)  among  the  foreign  countries  for  which  such 
issues  were  destined  ;  and  third  if  British  Possessions  are 
included  in  the  comparison. 

1913 


THE  TKADE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA  WITH 
THE  REPUBLICS  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA  IS  SHOWN  IN  THE 
FOLLOWING  TABLES  COMPILED  FROM  AMERICAN  OFFICIAL 
STATISTICS 


Imports 

Exports 

BALANCE  OF  TRADE 



In  favour 

Against 

American 

American 

of  U.S.A. 

U.S.A. 

Dollars 

Dollars 

American 
Dollars 

American 
Dollars 

Argentine  Republic   . 

26,863,732 

52,894,834 

26,031,102 

Uruguay 

2,450,697 

7,522,145 

5,071,448 



Guiana  (British) 

105,933 

1.813.745 

1,707,812 



Bolivia 

350 

;  940,744 

940.394 

— 

Guiana  (French) 

86,386 

337.714 

251.328 

— 

Paraguay 

58.285 

187,867 

129,582 



Falkland  Islands 

725 

725 



Brazil  . 

120,155,855 

42,638,467 

77.517.388 

Chile    . 

27,655,420 

16,076,763 

— 

11.578,657 

Columbia 

15.992,321 

7.397.696 

— 

8,594,625 

Venezuela     . 

10,852,331 

5.737.1 18 

— 

5.II5.213 

Peru     . 

9.666,579 

7,341,903 

— 

2,324,676 

Ecuador 

3,037,689 

2,553.785 

— 

483.904 

Guiana  (Dutch) 

821,460 
217,747,038 

704,487 

— 

"6,973 

146,147,993 

34,132,391 

I05.73M36 

GENERAL  STATISTICS 


131 


VALUE  OF  MERCHANDISE  EXPORTED  FROM  THE  UNITED 
STATES  TO  THE  REPUBLICS  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA  IN  THE 
YEAR  I913,  SHOWING  THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  ARGEN- 
TINE MARKET 


To  the  Argentine  Republic 

— 

$  52,894,834 

,,       Brazil 

.  1  42,638,467 

Uruguay     . 

7,522,145 

Ecuador 

.       2,553,785 

„       Paraguay     . 

187,867 

52,902,264 

„       Chile  .          .          .          . 

,      16,076,763 

,,       Columbia 

7.397.696 

Peru    .          .          .          . 

7,341,903 

,,       Venezuela    . 

•       5.737.118 

Guiana  (British)    . 

1.813,745 

,,       Bolivia 

940,744 

Guiana  (Dutch)     . 

704,487 

,,       Guiana  (French)    . 

337.714 

„       Falkland  Islands  . 

725 

40.350.895 

Total  value  of  sales  to  South  America.       Dollars 


146,147.993 


The  Argentine  Republic  received  36-2  %  of  total. 

Argentina  and  Brazil  divide  practically  between  them 
the  South  American  export  trade  of  the  United  States, 
Argentina  taking  by  far  the  larger  share,  and  well  over  one- 
third  of  the  whole  received  by  all  the  South  American 
countries  put  together.  The  value  of  the  Argentine  imports 
from  the  United  States  in  1913  amounted  to  $52,894,834 
(U.S.A.),  while  Uruguay  took  U.S.A.  goods  to  the  value  of 
$6,531,626  (U.S.A.). 


ARGENTINE   IMPORTS   FROM   EUROPE,    I913 

During    the    year    191 3    the    Argentine    Republic    pur- 
chased in  Europe  the  following  amounts  : — 


In  the  United  Kingdom 
Germany 
France  . 
Italy       . 
Belgium 
Spain 
Austria-Hungary 


$  goUl. 
130,886,587 
71,311,628 
38,075,811 
34,789,741 
21,953.910 
12,389,607 
5.933.444 


132 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


In  Holland 

Sweden  • 

Switzerland 

Portugal 

Russia    . 

Denmark 

Turkey  . 

Roumania,  Bulgaria  and  Greece 


$gold 
,074,104 
,123,889 
,749,682 
585.975 
447.845 
204,106 
127,026 
119,989 


^^64,835,981  =  gold  $  326,773,344 

Purchased  in  other  parts 

of  the  world     ;£i8,765,7i4=    „     $     94.579,199 


Total  ;^83.6oi,695r= 


421.352,543 


Where  will  these  purchases  be  made  in  the  future  ? 


GOLD 

(Argentina) 

Years. 

Imports. 

Exports. 

Balance. 

1904         . 

24,917.951 

1.604.292 

23,313.659 

1905         . 

32,559,540 

819.375 

31,740,165 

1906 

18,212,323 

1,545,622 

16.666.701 

1907         . 

23,552,726 

3.133.886 

20,418,840 

1908 

28,651,215 

44,817 

28.606,398 

1909 

•         67,453,816 

1,247,831 

66,205,985 

1910 

37,027.936 

1,669.892 

35.358,044 

I9II 

12.764.236 

3.008,597 

9.755.639 

1912 

36.077.807 

585.621 

35,492.186 

1913         • 

47,941,425 

43,417.484 
57,077.417 

4.523.941 

$go 

Id  329,158.975 

272,081,558 

=  ;^65,309.320 

11,324.884 

53.984.436 

It  is  regrettable,  from  several  points  of  view,  that  the 
National  Statistics  of  Uruguay  are  not  kept  and  published 
with  the  same  promptitude  and  regularity  as  those  of 
Argentina,  to  say  nothing  of  the  admirable  clearness  of  the 
forms  in  which  the  latter  are  issued.  The  Uruguayan 
authorities  should  really  know  that  the  absence  of  any 
complete  scheme  of  statistical  information  regarding  their 
country  is  more  than  apt  to  preserve  a  very  common 
though  erroneous  impression  that  Uruguay  can  be  of  but 
little  account  since  so  little  is  known  or  heard  of  it.  Little 
indeed  is  known  with  any  accuracy  of  its  production,  out- 
side the  circle  of  persons  directly  interested  in  its  trade  ; 


International  Trade  of  Argentina,  Brazil,  Chile,  and  Uruguay 

(Note^the  respective  proportions  of  population  to  trade) 


niLLIONSS       §        1        §        § 
$  COLO   "       -        -        -        - 

i     i     1     § 

I     I     I     %     I     I    I 

HILLIOMS 
$GOLD 

010 
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SM 

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7M 

700 

eM 
eoo 
uo 

600 

450 
400 

ejo 

300 
UO 
Sdo 
150 

too 

1              60 

till. 

010 
900 

850 

800 
7S0 

ra 

(SM 
000 

eso 

600 
450 
400 
3M 
300 
tM 
NO 
IW 

% 

gold            904.857.089 
opulation:       7.731.257 

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/ 

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gold            284.363.080. 

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: 

GENERAL  STATISTICS 


135 


but  this  obscurity  is  due  only  to  indifference  to  and  negli- 
gence of  the  art  of  self-assertion. 

In  point  of  fact  Uruguay  might  well  be  proud  of  the 
statistics  of  her  productivity  ;  for,  in  reality,  she  has  more 
cattle  than  and  nearly  as  many  sheep  as  the  Argentine 
Province  of  Buenos  Aires  while  her  superficial  area  is  only 
some  two-thirds  of  that  of  that  Province.  Uruguay  exports 
wool  to  the  average  value  of  some  £4,000,000,  hides 
£1,500,000,  frozen  and  chilled  meat  £1,110,000,  and  animals 
on  the  hoof  £230,000  annually.  The  value  of  its  wheat 
exports  for  the  five  years  ending  1910  has  been  stated 
at  £730,000  ;  flour  £234,000,  maize  £82,000  and  linseed 
£460,000  during  the  same  period.  As  we  have  seen,  the 
value  of  Uruguayan  trade  for  the  year  1913  was  £23,900,000, 
and  this  figure,  as  well  as  those  representing  Cereal  produc- 
tion and  exports,  are  likely  to  be  rapidly  increased  under 
normal  conditions. 


INCREASE  OF  ARGENTINE  CEREAL  EXPORTS 

IN  TEN  YEARS 

1904.     $  gold. 

1913.     $gold. 

Wheat         .... 

66,947,891 

102,631.143 

Maize           .... 

44,391,196 

112,292,394 

Linseed        .... 

28,359,923 

49,910,201 

Oats 

541.973 

20,447.278 

140,240,983 

285,281,016 

INCREASE  OF  ARGENTINE  MEAT  EXPORTS 

IN  TWENTY-NINE  YEARS 

1885.     $  gold. 

1913.     $  gold. 

Live  stock  :   cattle 

•       2,345,313       .  . 

6,848,830 

„        ,,         sheep 

58.552        .  . 

3II.99I 

Chilled  and  frozen  beef 

1,680       .. 

36,622,889 

Frozen  mutton     . 

75.323        •  • 

3,674,206 

Sundry  meats  frozen     . 

910,311 

,,           ,,        preserved 



I.257.39I 

Extract  of  meat  . 



1,598,136 

Powdered  meat    . 



1,097,566 

Preserved  tongues 



131.952 

Condensed  soup   . 



375,392 

Jerked  beef 

.       4.204,077        . 

658,097 

§  gol( 

1      6,684,945        . 

53,486,761 

=  i 

(       1,326,378 

10,612,452 

136    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

INCREASE  OF  TOTAL  ARGENTINE  EXPORTS  IN  TEN  YEARS 

$  gold. 

1904 :    Total  exports      ....     264,157,525 
1913:       .. 483.504.547 


Increase     .....     219,347,022 


INCREASE   OF   TOTAL   URUGUAYAN   EXPORTS   IN 
EIGHT   YEARS 

During  1905  $  (Uruguayan)  .  .     30,774,247 

„        1912  ,,  .  .     51,000,000 


Increase,  say,     $20,226,000=^4,303,000 


Wool  constitutes  about  nine-tenths  of  the  exports  of 
Uruguay. 

Up  to  and  including  1907  the  Imports  of  Uruguay  were 
in  excess  of  her  Exports.  In  1908,  however,  the  balance 
went  the  other  way  and  is  likely  to  remain  there. 

The  excess  of  Exports  over  Imports  in  1908  was  valued 
at  $2,840,206  (Uruguayan)  and  in  1909  at  $7,966,658.  In 
1 91 2  the  Imports  appear  to  have  risen  to  $49,380,000  as 
against  exports  $51,000,000.  Probably  these  last  figures  are 
roughly  accurate ;  but  the  last  year  for  which  any  full  official 
Statistics  appear  to  have  been  published  was  191 1. 

As  has  already  been  seen,  the  chief  countries  of  destination 
of  Argentine  Exports  prior  to  the  War  were  (generally  in 
the  following  order)  :  The  United  Kingdom,  Germany, 
France,  Belgium,  Brazil,  the  United  States,  Holland  and 
Italy.  Those  of  Uruguay  went  chiefly  to  France,  Belgium, 
Germany,  Argentina  and  the  United  Kingdom.  While 
Argentina  Imported  principally  from  the  United  Kingdom, 
Germany,  the  United  States,  France,  Italy,  Belgium  and 
Spain  ;  and  Uruguay  from  the  United  Kingdom,  Germany, 
the  United  States,  France,  Italy,  Belgium  and  Argentina. 

The  Surplus  of  Revenue  over  Expenditure  in  both 
Republics  may  appear  to  remain  always  so  small  as  only 
just  to  have  avoided  conversion  into  deficits.  It  should, 
however,  be  recollected  that  these  countries  are  constantly 


GENERAL  STATISTICS  137 

engaged  in  carrying  out  Public  Works  which  are  necessary 
to  the  fuller  development  of  their  natural  resources  ;  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  very  important  new  Port  Works  of 
Buenos  Aires  and  Montevideo  and  the  great  Argentine 
systems  of  irrigation.  Were  the  excess  of  Revenue  greater 
it  would  still  be  spent,  and  wisely  spent,  on  National  Public 
Works  and  Improvements  ;  which  are  the  best  assurance 
of  its  future  which  either  country  could  make. 

An  instance  of  the  rapid  Commercial  progress  of  the  River 
Plate  Countries  is  the  fact  that  whereas  in  1872  there  were 
but  four  Banks  in  Argentina,  in  1913  there  were  143. 

The  latest  (1914)  Commercial  and  Industrial  Census  of 
the  City  of  Buenos  Aires  shows  that  the  number  of  Com- 
mercial (chiefly  wholesale  and  retail  trading)  establishments 
in  that  City  has  increased  from  17,985,  as  shown  by  the 
previous  Census  of  1904,  to  29,600 — an  increase  of  65% — 
while  the  number  of  Factories  and  Manufacturing  establish- 
ments which  in  1904  was  8,877  was  in  1914  11,132 — an 
increase  of  25  %.  The  motive  power  employed  in  these  last- 
mentioned  establishments  has  increased  during  the  same 
period  from  19,458  h.p.  to  194,411  h.p. — an  increase  of 
900  % — while  the  number  of  persons  employed  has  increased 
112%. 

An  amusing  but  characteristic  note  is  struck  by  com- 
parison of  the  figures  representing  the  annual  sales  of 
flour  and  tobacco  respectively,  the  former  being  nearly 
$48,000,000  (paper)  and  the  latter  nearly  £44,000,000 
(paper). 

Not  such  a  great  difference  between  the  money  spent  in 
Buenos  Aires  on  flour,  much  of  which  is  exported,  and  on 
tobacco,  which  is  all  home  consumed  !  Another  is  that 
nearly  i  %  of  the  whole  population  of  the  City  consists  of 
Medical  Men;  Brokers  and  Commission  Agents  (clubbed 
together  and  classed  as  professional  men  by  the  Census)  run 
them  very  close,  with  Builders  a  good  third,  and  the  rest, 
in  the  sporting  sense,  nowhere. 


188  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Most  of  the  wholesale  and  retail  traders  are  Italians, 
Spaniards  and  Argentines,  in  this  order ;  the  Italians  being 
in  both  cases  nearly  three  times  and  the  Spaniards  nearly 
twice  as  numerous  as  the  Argentines.  After  them  come 
French,  Russians  (chiefly  Jewish),  Levantines  and  Egyptians 
(locally  known  as  "  Turcos "),  Uruguayans,  German, 
British  and  other  nationalities  in  commerce;  and  French, 
Russians,  Levantines  and  Egyptians,  Belgians,  Danes  and 
Portuguese  and  other  nationalities  as  Manufacturers, 

A  good  many  establishments  of  both  classes  are,  however, 
shown  to  belong  to  Argentines  and  foreigners  in  partnership. 

It  is  due  to  the  compilers  of  the  Census  to  remark  that 
they  have  treated  "  Jews  "  as  pertaining  to  a  separate 
nationality,  though  therefore  there  is  possibly  some  con- 
fusion under  the  heading  "  Russians." 


CHAPTER   X 

A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES  AND  NATIONAL 
TERRITORIES  OF  ARGENTINA,  AND  THE  IN- 
TERIOR  OF  URUGUAY 

BUENOS   AIRES 

THIS  is  the  largest  and  most  densely  populated  and 
the  most  uniformly  prosperous  Province  of  the 
Republic.^  It  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the 
Provinces  of  Santa  Fe  and  Cordoba,  on  the  West  by  the 
Territories  of  the  Pampa  Central  and  Rio  Negro  and  on 
the  East  and  South  by  the  Parand  and  Plate  Rivers  and 
the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Its  capital,  La  Plata,  is  of  a  somewhat 
sadly  monumental  aspect.  It  is  indeed  as  yet  but  a  monu- 
ment to  the  still  unrealized  dreams  of  its  modern  founders 
and  architects.  It  was  to  have  been  a  great  city  with  a 
busy  port ;  it  is  now  a  place  where  Provincial  parliamen- 
tarians, lawyers,  university  students  and  Law  Court  and 
Police  officials  spend  some  hours  each  day,  coming  each 
morning  and  returning  each  evening  from  and  to  the 
superior  activity  and  attractions  of  the  Federal  Capital. 

Nevertheless,  La  Plata  has  long,  wide,  eucalyptus-planted 
avenues  ;  its  chief  Plaza,  in  which  are  the  Municipality  and 
the  Cathedral,  is  not  much  smaller  than  Trafalgar  Square  ; 
its  Museum  is  world-renowned  for  its  pala^ontological 
collections ;  and  its  Law  Courts,  University,  Theatre, 
Police  Offices  and  the  above-mentioned  Municipality  are 

^  If  the  Province  has  lately  found  difTiculty  in  paying  the  interest  on 
its  debt,  this  has  been  on  account  of  large  expenditure  on  Public  Works  ; 
coupled  with  mismanagement  of  its  large  revenues. 

139 


140    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

huge,  magnificently  solid-looking  buildings.  But  the  lack 
of  all  perceptible  movement  in  La  Plata  leads  one  to  imagine 
that  if  its  broad  avenues  and  noble  Plazas  are  not  grass- 
grown  the  fact  is  due  much  more  to  the  action  of  street 
cleaners  than  to  that  of  traffic.  Truly,  one  may  often  gaze 
down  a  very  long  vista  of  pavement  between  tall  eucalyptus 
trees  for  many  minutes  without  seeing  one  single  other 
human  being. 

The  Port  works  of  Buenos  Aires  have  drained  its  only 
source  of  commerce  from  La  Plata.  Still,  some  day  the 
trade  of  the  Republic  may  need  it  also. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  only  just  to  add  that  La  Plata 
makes  out  a  claim  to  nearly  100,000  inhabitants.  Where 
they  all  get  to  when  one  visits  it  is  mystery.  Perhaps  they 
in  their  turn  spend  their  days  in  Buenos  Aires  ;  returning 
home  to  sleep  in  the  deep  stillness  of  the  Provincial  Capital. 

The  real  chief  port  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires  is 
Bahia  Blanca.  First  of  all,  in  1896,  the  National  Govern- 
ment decided  to  build  the  naval  port  and  arsenal  now  in 
existence  there :  subsequently  the  Buenos  Aires  Great 
Southern  and  the  Buenos  Aires  and  Pacific  Railway  Com- 
panies realized  the  conveniences  and  situation  of  Bahia 
Blanca  as  a  place  of  export  for  the  produce  of  their  great 
and  ever-increasing  southern  and  south-western  zones  and 
each  company  constructed  a  port  for  the  almost  exclusive 
purposes  of  its  own  traffic. 

The  Great  Southern  Railway's  port  is  called  Ingeniero 
White  and  that  of  the  Pacific  Railway  Puerto  Galvan. 
Besides  these,  separate  and  distinct  constructions,  Bahia 
Blanca  has  a  fourth  port,  Cuatreros,  at  the  interior  end 
of  the  bay.  which  exports  large  and  increasing  quantities 
of  frozen  and  chilled  meat. 

The  great  railway  ports  of  Bahia  Blanca  are  fitted  with 
every  modern  mechanical  appliance,  huge  cranes,  electric 
endless  belts  for  loading  loose  grain,  and  immense  grain 
warehouses  and  elevators.     The  town  of  Bahia  Blanca  is 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       141 

rapidly  growing  in  importance  and  influence.  Its  municipal 
administration  is  largely  in  the  hands  of  British  exporters 
and  merchants. 

On  the  Atlantic  coast,  between  Bahia  Blanca  and  Buenos 
Aires  and  some  400  kilometres  from  the  latter  city,  is  the 
famous  seaside  resort  of  Mar-del-Plata,  the  Argentine  Monte 
Carlo — Trouville-Biarritz-cum-Ostend  (before  the  War  !). 

During  the  season  there  (at  all  other  times  of  the  year  it 
is  deserted)  vast  Hotels  and  Restaurants  charge  famine 
prices  for  accommodation  and  food  and  there  is  always 
more  demand  than  available  supply  of  either.  Wealthy 
Argentine  families  have,  of  course,  their  palatial  "  Chalets," 
and  the  Rambla,  as  the  great  promenade  by  the  sea  is 
called,  is  a  very  brilliant  scene  at  all  times  during  the  weeks 
in  which  it  is  fashionable. 

Music  and  dancing  contribute  to  the  nights'  amusement 
at  the  Casino,  large  Hotels  and  private  houses ;  and  at  the 
Club  members  can  indulge  in  those  games  in  which  chance 
plays  a  greater  role  than  skill. 

As  one  young  gentleman,  who  had  failed  to  get  a  bed  at 
any  of  the  Hotels  he  thought  worthy  of  his  patronage,  once 
remarked,  "  No  matter,  one  can  always  play  Baccarat  till 
it  is  bathing  time  again." 

The  air  of  Mar-del-Plata,  that  of  the  wide  Atlantic,  would 
doubtless  be  a  powerful  restorative  to  anyone  who  could 
resist  the  temptations  of  amusement  sufficiently  to  give  it 
a  chance.  Some  people  possibly  do,  but  if  so  keep  very 
silent  about  it. 

Mar-del-Plata  is,  however,  destined  to  show  a  more 
serious  side  of  its  possibilities  in  consequence  of  the  building 
of  a  commercial  port ;  the  construction  of  which  has  been 
entrusted  to  a  French  firm,  also  the  constructors  of  the  new 
port  works  of  Montevideo.  Potatoes  which  are  deemed  the 
best  in  the  Republic  come  from  near  Mar-del-Plata. 

Other  chief  towns  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires  are 
AvELLANEDA  (situate  on  the  Provincial  side  of  the  boundary 


142    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

line  between  the  Province  and  the  Federal  City  of  Buenos 
Aires,  but  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  district  of  the  latter 
with  which  it  is  connected  by  unbroken  lines  of  streets  and 
houses),  Chivilcoy,  Pergamino,  Tres  Arroyos,  Nueve 
DE  Julio,  Azul,  the  residential  suburbs  (of  Buenos  Aires), 
Temperley  and  Lomas  de  Zamorra  and  many  smaller 
"  camp  "  towns. 

All  these  minor  camp  towns  of  the  Province  of  Buenos 
Aires  look  much  alike  and  none  of  them  are  very  interesting 
in  appearance.  Their  stores,  however,  do  good  business  in 
supplying  the  needs  of  large  surrounding  rural  districts,  and 
some  of  these  towns  have  periodical  cattle  shows  and  sales 
which  are  well  worth  visiting. 

Temperley  and  Lomas  de  Zamorra  consist  chiefly  of 
Villa  residences,  of  all  sizes  and  styles  of  architecture,  and 
some  shops. 

The  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  half  as  large  again  as 
the  whole  Republic  of  Uruguay,  possesses  some  of  the  best 
land  in  Argentina,  and  in  it  farming  has  reached  the  highest 
developments  as  yet  attained  in  either  Republic.  In  it 
intensive  farming  has  already  made  its  first  appearance  in 
South  America — as  needs  must  when  high  land- values  drive. 
The  surface  of  this  Province  is  one  almost  unbroken  level 
plain. 

It  at  present  produces  one-third  of  the  whole  output  of 
wheat,  nearly  a  similar  proportion  of  maize,  one-fifth  that 
of  linseed,  ^y  %  of  that  of  oats,  and  also  contains  about  37  % 
of  the  live  stock  of  the  whole  Republic. 

Good  water  is  obtainable  nearly  everywhere  in  practically 
close  proximity  to  the  surface.  This  fact,  combined  with 
the  comparatively  few  running  streams  and  the  tendency 
of  these  to  dry  up  in  hot  weather,  causes  some  parts  of  this 
Province  to  have  the  appearance  of  a  forest  of  tall  skeleton 
iron  windmills.  These  are  set  up  over  artificially  sunk  wells, 
to  draw  water  for  animals  and  domestic  purposes. 

A  detailed  description  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       143 

would  extend  to  a  very  great  length  indeed  ;  as  this  Province 
is,  as  far  as  its  climatic  conditions  permit,  a  compendium 
of  the  industrial  activity,  at  its  best,  of  the  whole  Republic. 
That  it  is  so  is  due  to  its  situation  on,  or  always  in  relatively 
close  proximity  to,  the  estuary  of  the  River  Plate  ;  the 
cradle  of  the  civilization  and  progress  of  the  countries  under 
discussion. 

Farming  and  most  other  industries  find  their  highest 
expression  within  easy  reach  of  and  in  the  Federal  Capital. 

As  far  as  its  physical  aspect  is  concerned,  the  Province 
of  Buenos  Aires  has  been  accused  with  considerable  justice 
of  being  generally  uninteresting.  Certainly  its  surface  is 
one  huge  flat  plain,  until  one  gets  south  to  the  ranges  of  the 
Sierra  de  la  Ventana  and  the  Tandil  hills.  Past  them, 
nothing  but  monotonous  plain  again  till  its  southernmost 
boundary,  the  Rio  Colorado,  is  reached. 

Its  only  romantic  scenery,  though  that  is  delightful 
indeed,  is  on  its  north-eastern  frontier,  along  the  small  River 
Tigre  and  the  majestic  Parana ;  the  banks  and  innumerable 
islands  of  which  are  clad  with  useful  osiers,  flowering  reeds, 
peach  trees  and  a  large  riot  of  other  beautiful  and  luxuriant 
vegetation.  Many  a  spring  day  can  be  passed  in  idyllic 
enjoyment  among  the  islands  of  the  Tigre. 

At  Tandil,  on  the  south-eastern  side  of  the  Province, 
there  are  quarries  of  fine  marble  and  building  stone,  and 
until  a  year  or  so  ago  there  was  a  famous  rocking-stone 
perched  on  another  rock,  the  surface  of  which  is  inclined 
at  an  angle  of  something  like  45  degrees.  To  all  appearances 
a  mere  gust  of  wind  would  have  toppled  the  upper  stone 
down  into  a  hollow  beneath  •  but  the  tale  goes  that  Seiior 
Benito  Villanueva,  a  wealthy  and  sportsmanlike  Argentine, 
once  tied  a  rope  round  the  rocking-stone  and  attached  the 
other  end  to  a  double  span  of  oxen  on  the  plain  below.  The 
oxen  puHed  ;  but  without  any  other  effect  on  the  rocking- 
stone  than  temporarily  to  cant  it  just  as  many  centimetres 
as  it  could  be  moved  by  a  good  push  from  a  man's  hand. 


144    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Now,  alas  for  Tandil,  someone  has  succeeded  in  dislodging 
the  rocking-stone  from  its  uncanny-looking  eminence,  so 
that  it  has,  literally,  fallen  from  its  high  celebrity. 

Buenos  Aires  is,  naturally,  the  Province  of  palatial 
estancia  houses  surrounded  by  model  farms.  The  Queen 
Province.  The  most  densely  populated  and  cultivated  and 
the  one  with  the  largest  revenues. 


SANTA   FE 

This  Province  ranks  next  to  that  of  Buenos  Aires  in 
respect  of  area  and  population,  while  its  output  of  both 
maize  and  linseed  is  slightly  greater  than  that  of  the 
Queen  Province ;  in  regard  to  wheat  it  stands  third 
among  the  Argentine  Provinces,  Cordoba  coming  imme- 
diately after  Buenos  Aires,  and  in  respect  of  oats  it  again 
comes  second.  In  point  of  live  stock  it  comes  only  fifth, 
after  Buenos  Aires,  Entre  Rios,  Corrientes  and  Cordoba. 

It  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Territory  of  the  Chaco, 
on  the  West  by  the  Provinces  of  Santiago  del  Estero  and 
Cordoba,  on  the  South  by  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires 
and  on  the  East  by  the  River  Parana. 

The  northern  part  of  Santa  Fe  is  covered  with  vast 
forests,  continuations  of  those  of  the  Provinces  of  Santiago 
del  Estero  and  the  Territory  of  the  Chaco.  These  forests 
are  rich  in  Quebracho  wood,  and  from  them  also  come  large 
supplies  of  firewood  and  charcoal. 

The  other  parts  of  Santa  Fe  are  devoted  to  stock  and 
agriculture. 

The  streams  of  this  Province,  although  more  numerous 
than  those  of  Buenos  Aires,  have  (with  the  exception  of  the 
great  River  Parana)  the  same  tendency  to  dry  up  as  have 
those  of  the  Queen  Province,  and,  therefore,  water-drawing 
windmills  are  in  proportionate  evidence. 

Its  Capital,  the  city  from  which  it  takes  its  name,  is  one 
of  the  oldest  in  the  River  Plate  countries.     Its  movement 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       145 

is,  however,  little  else  than  that  of  a  merely  political  capital ; 
the  town  of  Rosario,  with  its  port,  being  the  centre  of  most 
of  the  commercial  activity  of  this  part  of  the  Republic. 
Until  the  rise  of  Bahia  Blanca,  Rosario  held  the  undisputed 
rank  of  the  second  commercial  centre  of  Argentina. 

The  City  of  Santa  F^  nevertheless  possesses  an  old-world 
beauty  and  charm,  with  its  palm  avenues  and  spacious 
Plazas,  its  many  churches  and  its  large  one-storied  resi- 
dences. Rosario,  on  the  other  hand,  is  as  unsightly  and 
uninteresting  a  place  to  the  eye  as  could  well — or,  rather 
badly — be  conceived.  It  has,  however,  a  large  share  of  the 
cereal  export  trade.  This  Province  has  also  other  important 
ports  on  the  Paran4,  viz.  the  port  of  Santa  Fe  itself,  Villa 
Constitution,  Colastine  and  several  minor  ones,  all  of  which 
are  available  for  ocean-going  ships. 

After  Buenos  Aires,  Santa  F6  is  the  Province  with  by  far 
the  greatest  and  most  conveniently  situated  railway  mileage. 

Mixed  agriculture  and  stock  farming  is  practised  in  many 
districts  ;  though  Santa  F6  has  not  yet  felt  the  economic 
need  of  other  than  extensive  farming.  Still,  land  values 
have,  until  recent  events  prejudicially,  if  only  temporarily, 
affected  all  such  values,  followed  those  in  Buenos  Aires  on 
an  upward  course.  Santa  F6  sends  large  quantities  of 
potatoes  to  the  Buenos  Aires  and  local  markets. 

The  milling  industry  of  this  Province  ranks  not  only  next 
in  importance  to  that  of  Buenos  Aires,  but  its  output  of 
flour  is  very  much  greater  than  that  of  Entre  Rios,  the  next 
most  important  Province  in  this  regard.  The  Department 
of  Reconquista,  in  the  North  of  the  Province,  has  sugar 
mills,  and  other  industries  arc  the  production  of  ground-nut 
oil,  dairy  produce,  tanneries,  preserved  meats  and  maize 
alcohol. 

,  c(5rdoba 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Province 
of  Santiago  del  Estero,  on  the  North- West  by  the  Province 


146    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  Catamarca,  on  the  West  by  the  Province  of  La  Rioja  and 
San  Luis,  on  the  South  by  the  Territory  of  the  Pampa 
Central  and  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  and  on  the  East 
by  the  Province  of  Santa  F6. 

Cordoba  is  the  second  Province  of  the  Republic  in  point 
of  wheat  and  linseed  production,  being  not  far  behind 
Buenos  Aires  in  this  regard.  Its  maize  production,  however, 
does  not  amount  to  one-third  of  that  of  either  Buenos  Aires 
or  Santa  F^,  while  in  oats  it  about  ties  with  the  latter. 
In  live  stock  it  ranks  fourth  among  the  Argentine  Provinces, 
though  it  has  less  than  half  the  number  possessed  by  Entre 
Rios  and  only  about  half  of  that  of  Corrientes.  In  the  matter 
of  population  it  ranks  fourth  among  the  Provinces  of  the 
Republic,  with  about  one-third  that  of  Buenos  Aires. 

As  one  travels  towards  the  ancient  capital  of  this  Province 
one  begins  to  realize  that  the  cosmopolitan  delights  of  the 
city  of  Buenos  Aires  do  not  reflect  the  soul  of  the  Republic  : 
the  soul  that  fought  for  its  liberty  under  the  blue  sky  and 
warm  sun  of  25th  of  May,  now  over  a  hundred  years  ago. 
One  begins  involuntarily  to  dream  of  the  Gaucho  Wars  and 
to  feel  the  atmosphere  of  wilder  bygone  times  amid  the 
steep  water-cut  and  cacti-crowned  banks  of  the  five  great 
rivers  which  traverse  the  land  from  west  to  east.  And  when 
one  gets  to  "  The  Learned  City  "  the  illusion  is  not  dispelled. 
Only  one  extremely  modern-looking  Hotel  in  a  corner  of  the 
Plaza  jars  ;  the  rest  of  old  Cordoba  exhales  the  magnolia- 
scented  atmosphere  of  Old  Colonial  days.  The  Cathedral, 
the  University  (founded  in  1613)  and  the  innumerable 
churches,  the  bells  of  which  all  clang  incessantly  on  Feast- 
days,  all  help  to  preserve  in  the  old  part  of  the  City  of 
Cordoba  an  atmosphere  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when  monas- 
teries and  learning  were  indissolubly  connected.  And  of 
monks  and  nuns,  brown-robed,  black-robed,  white-robed 
and  blue-robed,  many  there  be  in  Cordoba.  Wherever 
one  looks,  across  the  Plaza,  up  one  street  or  down  another, 
one  sees  them  walking  in  twos  or  small  groups  with  a  uni- 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       147 

formly  measured  step  which,  as  one  instinctively  feels, 
nothing  could  hurry  nor  retard.  And  the  black-coated 
citizens  of  Cordoba  walk  silently  with  eyes  downcast.  But 
there  is  fierceness  behind  those  cast-down  eyes  and  quick 
hot  blood  in  the  veins  of  those  men  in  black  ;  as  anyone 
would  soon  find  out  to  his  cost  were  he  suspected  of  too 
close  enquiry  into  local  political  ways  and  means. 

The  writer  speaks  feelingly  on  this  subject  since  when, 
a  few  years  ago,  he  was  visiting  Cordoba  with  a  quite  natural 
but  equally  innocent  curiosity  for  the  old-world  corners  of 
the  City,  he  unfortunately  disclosed  in  conversation  with  an 
eminently  respectable-looking,  immaculately  dressed  gentle- 
man that  he,  the  present  author,  was  a  journalist. 

Soon  afterwards  his  adventures  began.  He  was  molested 
in  indirect  ways,  and  finally  invited  to  pay  a  visit  to  the 
Central  Police  Station.  There  he  was  given  cigarettes  and 
coffee  by  the  Comisario,  who  floridly  apologized  and  ex- 
pressed his  deep  regret  and  shame  for  the  treatment  an 
honourable  stranger  had  received.  It  was,  however,  but 
a  series  of  regrettable  accidents  arising  from  unfortunate 
error  of  certain  bad  characters  who  were  now  in  durance  vile 
in  consequence. 

Here  he  rang  a  bell  and  ordered  the  answering  policeman 
to  bring  in  the  culprits.  They  were  duly  brought  in  and 
recognized. 

"  Now,"  said  the  Comisario,  "  you  will  have  no  more 
trouble.  Besides,"  he  added,  "  one  of  our  plain-clothes  men 
will  accompany  you  in  future  wherever  you  go — for  your 
better  protection." 

The  plain-clothes  man  certainly  obeyed  orders ;  so  per- 
sistently that  the  whole  why  and  wherefore  at  last  dawned 
on  my  confused  brain. 

The  intention  was  to  worry  me  so  much  in  a  polite  quasi- 
legitimate  fashion  that  I  could  have  no  ostensible  cause  of 
complaint  ■  but,  at  the  same  time,  so  that  I  should  in- 
continently quit  the  ancient  City  of  Cordoba  in  disgust. 


148    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

The  reason  for  all  this  was  the  fact  that,  having  nothing 
better  to  do  on  the  evening  of  my  arrival,  I  had  wandered 
into  the  basement  of  my  Hotel  and  there  found  a  person 
who  looked  like,  and  indeed  was,  a  leading  local  politician 
running  a  roulette  to  catch  the  nickels  of  a  crowd  of 
working  men.  At  that  time  the  roulette  was  the  scarcely 
concealed  vice  of  the  town,  rife  in  the  back  room  of  every 
bar. 

It  is  an  illegal  game  in  Argentina,  as  elsewhere  except 
Monte  Carlo,  and  shortly  after  my  visit  it  was  the  cause  of 
a  great  outcry  and  scandal  in  which  several  Provincial  High 
Officials  were  involved. 

I  was  a  journalist  and,  therefore,  dangerous.  So  a  course 
of  delicate  hints  to  me  to  get  out  had  been  planned  and 
executed. 

Following  the  gambling  scandal,  a  leading  Opposition 
politician  was  shot  dead  in  his  carriage  on  the  high  road  a 
short  way  outside  the  city.  When  I  read  this  news  I  was 
glad  that  I  had  not  persisted  in  seeming  to  pry  into  cup- 
boards containing  Cordoba's  official  skeletons,  and  for 
similar  reasons  I  am  still  somewhat  shy  of  Cordobese  gentle- 
men with  downcast  eyes  and  soft,  measured  tread. 

All  that,  however,  belongs  to  Old  C6rdoba.  The  parts 
of  the  city  called  New  Cordoba  and  Alta  Cordoba  are  replete 
with  palatial  residences  as  fine  and  as  new  as  residential 
palaces  need  be. 

The  City  of  Cordoba  is  not  only  the  traditional  seat  of 
learning  par  excellence  of  the  Republic,  it  is  also,  as  a  conse- 
quence of  old-time  associations  no  doubt,  its  chief  centre  of 
clerical  influence. 

Cordoba  is  intensely  and,  if  one  may  be  permitted  to  say 
it,  intolerantly  Catholic.  Were  it  not  subject  to  the  demo- 
cratic laws  of  a  modern  and  very  go-ahead  Republic  one 
would  hardly  be  surprised  to  find  disciplinary  institutions 
of  an  Inquisitorial  type  still  in  full  swing  in  this  old-world 
city  of  South  America.    As  it  is,  there  is  no  doubt  of  the 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       149 

predominance  of  priestly  influence  in  Provincial  politics. 
Much  of  the  best  freehold  property  in  the  city  is  owned  by 
Monastic  Orders  or  by  the  Society  of  Jesus. 

Most  of  the  Province  consists  of  a  large  plain  ;  which, 
naturally,  is  the  chief  productive  area.  But  Cordoba  has 
hills  famous  for  the  purity  of  their  air  and  great  resorts  for 
consumptive  patients,  Alta  Gracia,  with  its  fine  hotel, 
golf  links,  etc.,  has  of  late  years  acquired  a  very  favourable 
reputation  as  a  place  in  which  anyone  may  spend  a  very 
pleasant  and  healthful  week  or  so. 

In  the  North-West  of  the  Province  are  great  salt  marshes, 
in  and  around  which  only  a  very  scanty  and  meagre  vegeta- 
tion flourishes,  and  in  the  North-East  is  the  Mar  Chiquita, 
a  large  and,  in  parts,  very  deep  lake,  the  waters  of  which 
are  salty  like  those  of  the  sea.    Hence  its  name. 

C6rdoba  also  possesses  large  forests,  as  yet  chiefly  ex- 
ploited for  building  timber  and  firewood. 

Rio  Cuarto,  on  the  river  of  that  name,  is  the  next 
largest  town  in  the  Province  in  point  of  population,  but  it 
is  likely  soon  to  be  altogether  surpassed  in  importance  by 
Bell  Ville,  on  the  Central  Argentine  Railway,  a  rapidly 
advancing  centre  of  the  cereal  trade,  and  some  day  also, 
probably,  by  Marcos  Juarez,  comparatively  close  to  it  on 
the  same  line. 

Goats  abound  in  the  North  of  C6rdoba,  Land  values 
have  increased  and  are  increasing  ;  especially  in  the  most 
fertile  regions  in  the  South-Eastern  parts  of  the  Province. 

C6rdoba  has  given  and  continues  to  give  much  attention 
to  irrigation  and  possesses  one  of  the  largest  semi-natural 
reservoirs  in  the  world,  certainly  in  South  America,  in  the 
Dique  San  Roque,  which  is  formed  by  means  of  a  wall  of 
masonry  placed  across  the  mouth  of  a  mountain  gorge. 
Its  capacity  is  260,000,000  cubic  metres,  and  its  operation 
is  completed  by  a  basin  situated  some  fifteen  miles  from 
and  below  it,  from  which  the  water  flows  through  two  great 
primary  canals.     The  area  so  irrigated  is  some  130,000 


150    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

hectares.  Other  large  irrigation  works  are  in  course  of 
construction,  and  more  still  are  under  consideration. 

Cordoba  has  also  a  large  share  of  industrial  enterprise, 
of  which  the  chief  are  lime  and  cement  works,  ornamental 
and  other  tile  manufactories,  potteries,  sawmills  and  butter 
factories. 

The  hills  of  this  Province  have  some  practically  un- 
exploited  mineral  deposits.  The  area  between  the  city  of 
Cordoba  and  the  Provinces  of  Santa  Fe  and  Buenos  Aires 
is  covered  with  a  close  network  of  railway  lines,  in  great 
contrast  (as  may  be  seen  by  a  glance  at  the  railway  map) 
in  this  respect  with  the  more  Northern  parts  of  the  Province. 

There  has  for  a  long  time  been  talk  of  a  canal  to  run  from 
near  the  city  of  Cordoba  to  a  point  close  to  the  port  of 
Rosario,  utilizing  the  surplus  waters  of  the  Primero,  Segundo 
and  Tercero  Rivers. 

There  is  something  almost  incongruously  prosaic  about 
the  naming,  ist,  2nd,  3rd  and  4th,  of  the  rivers  which 
traverse  a  Province  in  which  so  much  of  the  old  romantic 
atmosphere  lingers. 

The  Alfalfa  fields  of  Cordoba  are  in  extent  second  only 
to  those  of  Buenos  Aires,  covering  an  area  equal  to  more 
than  half  that  devoted  to  this  forage  in  the  latter  Province. 


ENTRE   RIOS 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Province 
of  Corrientes,  on  the  West  and  East  by,  respectively,  the 
Rivers  Parand  and  Uruguay  (hence  its  name  "  Between 
Rivers  ")  and  on  the  extreme  South  by  the  River  Plate, 
which  is  formed  by  the  conjunction  of  the  Parani  and 
Uruguay. 

As  has  been  seen,  Entre  Rios  comes  second  among  the 
Argentine  Provinces  for  production  of  oats  ;  but  in  respect 
of  other  cereal  crops  it  is  still  far  behind  Buenos  Aires, 
Santa  F6  and  Cordoba.     It  is,  however,  rich  in  live  stock, 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       151 

having  nearly  three  times  the  quantity  possessed  by  Cor- 
doba. In  point  of  population  it  ranks  fourth  among  the 
Argentine  Provinces. 

Until  the  accomplishment  of  the  Entre  Rios  railway  this 
Province  was  known  as  the  "  Poor  Sister  "  of  Buenos  Aires 
and  Santa  F6.  Now,  this  disparagement  cannot  be  thrown 
on  her  ;  for  her  prosperity  is  advancing  literally  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  This  is  very  largely  owing  to  the  communica- 
tion and  transport  afforded  by  the  Railway  and  its  train- 
carrying  Ferry  Boats  which  run  between  Zarate  on  the 
Buenos  Aires  side  of  the  River  Parana  and  Ibicuy  on  the 
Entre  Rios  side,  thus  permitting  of  traffic  without  change 
of  car  between  the  Federal  City  and  the  Entre  Rios  system 
— and,  in  fact,  also,  onward  through  the  Province  of  Cor- 
rientes  and  the  Republic  of  Paraguay  to  Brazil,  by  several 
links  in  the  chain  of  railway  lines  one  day  to  run  the  whole 
length  from  North  and  South  of  the  two  Americas. 

The  journey  by  rail  from  Buenos  Aires  to  Parana,  the 
capital  of  Entre  Rios,  is  a  delightful  one,  not  the  least 
pleasant  part  of  it  being  the  voyage  in  the  well-appointed 
Ferry  Boats  up  and  across  beautiful  winding  reaches  of  the 
Parand  River. 

From  the  Provincial  capital  one  can  again  take  train 
through  interesting  country  across  the  Province  to  Con- 
cordia, on  the  River  Uruguay,  and  so  back  to  Buenos  Aires 
by  one  of  the  fine  and  comfortable  River  Boats.  That  is, 
if  one  does  not  first  of  all  go  further  North  to  the  famous 
falls  of  Iguazu,  further  mention  of  which  will  be  made  when 
writing  of  the  National  Territory  of  Misiones. 

The  City  of  Parana  is  a  quiet,  pleasant  Capital,  redolent 
of  the  memory  of  General  Urquiza,  the  one-time  "  Tyrant  " 
of  these  parts  of  the  River  Plate  Territories.  One  sees  the 
old  large  low  building  which  was  the  head-quarters  of  his 
government,  and  where,  as  history  hath  it,  he  contrived  to 
have  many  of  his  political  enemies  put  to  death.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  is  much  evidence  of  his  enlightenment  in 


152    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

the  shape  of  schools,  first  estabHshed  by  him  and  later 
fostered  by  '•'  The  School  Master  President  "  Sarmiento. 
The  fact  is  that  Urquiza,  like  Rozas,  whom  he  supplanted, 
and  Artfgas,  the  national  hero  of  Uruguay,  were  all  strong 
men  of  good  purpose  according  to  their  lights  and  times  ; 
times  which  were  turbulent  and  in  which  it  was  necessary 
for  him  who  would  govern  to  kill  first  if  he  would  not 
himself  die  by  an  assassin's  hand. 

Opposition  politicians  had  short  shrift  in  those  days. 
They  were  caught,  convicted  and  executed  almost  before  the 
plots  of  which  they  were  found  guilty  had  been  fully  formed. 

Each  of  these  tyrants  had  a  far-reaching  and  minutely 
penetrating  police  system,  from  which  nothing  was  hid  of 
the  movements  and  meetings  of  other  people  in  those 
sparsely  populated  days  ;  days  when  no  man's  business  was 
a  secret  to  his  neighbour.  As  a  result,  order  sprang  out  of 
disorder  and  was  maintained  by  iron  rule. 

Looking  back  from  this  distance  of  time  one  can  perceive 
the  great  and  good  work  done  by  these  men  for  their 
country.    Their  methods  were  of  the  time  ;  necessary. 

On  the  cliff-like  bank  of  the  river  is  the  really  charming 
Urquiza  Park.  The  chief  Plaza,  "  Primero  de  Mayo,"  is 
gay  o'  nights  with  electric  light  shining  on  the  tables  outside 
the  Cafes,  whilst  a  band  plays  in  the  midst  of  the  garden  in 
its  centre.  Parand  has  trams  and  a  theatre,  and  altogether 
is  quite  a  busy  commercial  centre.  Still  it  is,  as  has  been 
said,  quiet  with  the  distinctive  quiet  of  really  Provincial 
towns  all  the  world  over. 

But  the  most  charming  place  of  all  (to  the  writer's  mind, 
one  of  the  most  charming  in  the  Republic)  is  Concordia. 
Its  cobbled  streets  and  orange-scented  gardens,  its  pure 
air,  bright  sun  and  cool  breezes  combine  to  give  one  the 
feeling  of  having  at  last  reached  a  true  haven  of  rest  from 
the  turmoil  of  the  outer  world  ;  a  haven  in  which  one  might 
dream  the  remainder  of  one's  life  away  happy  and  passing 
rich  on  the  Argentine  equivalent  to  forty  pounds  a  year. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       153 

Yet  Concordia  is  busy,  busy  in  its  old  Colonial  way  with 
sending  produce  down  the  broad  River  Uruguay  to  the  great 
noisy  port  of  Buenos  Aires. 

The  Entre  Rios  farmers  do  good  business  in  cattle  fatten- 
ing ;  for  which  their  usually  well-watered  and  rich  pasturage 
is  peculiarly  fitted.  Yet,  at  times,  Entre  Rios  has  suffered 
from  severe  drought,  and  more  frequently  from  locust 
invasion,  a  plague  which,  however,  is  now  already  fairly 
well  held  in  check  by  the  measures  adopted  and  strictly 
carried  out  by  Government  for  the  gradual  elimination,  as 
it  is  hoped,  of  these  insects  from  the  Republic. 

Entre  Rios,  still  only  just,  so  to  speak,  opened  up  by  the 
railway,  is  still  conservative  in  respect  of  the  maintenance 
of  large  land  holdings.  These  are,  however,  slowly  but  surely 
being  divided  up  owing  to  demand  and  in  accordance  with 
the  more  utilitarian  spirit  of  the  times. 

Entre  Rios  is  a  chief  centre  of  the  jerked-beef  industry, 
and  the  Liebig  factories  are  an  economic  feature  which 
cannot  go  unmentioned.  Grease  factories,  for  which  large 
quantities  of  mares  are  slaughtered  annually,  also  constitute 
one  of  the  chief  industries  of  this  Province, 

Entre  Rios  has  a  very  considerable  acreage  under  barley 

CORRIENTES 

Corrientes  may  be  regarded,  economically,  as  well  as 
geographically,  as  still  being  one  of  the  outlying  Provinces, 
inasmuch  as  its  population  and  cereal  production  are  much 
less  than  those  of  the  Provinces  already  dealt  with. 

It  is,  however,  numerically  richer  in  Live  Stock  than 
either  C6rdoba  or  Santa  F6  ^  and  has  large  areas  under 
maize  cultivation. 

*  In  regard  to  the  outlying  Provinces  It  should  always  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  number  of  head  of  Live  Stock  possessed  by  them  need  not 
and  usually  does  not  afford  any  indication  of  value,  for  the  farther  one  gets 
from  Buenos  Aires  the  less  careful  breeding  one  finds,  and  therefore  the 
greater  predominance  of  native  cattle  and  slieep. 


154    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Corrientes  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  River  Parana, 
which  forms  the  boundary  between  it  and  the  RepubUc  of 
Paraguay.  This  river  is  also  its  Western  boundary,  while 
on  the  East  it  is  bounded  by  the  National  Territory  of 
Misiones  and  the  River  Uruguay,  and  on  the  South  by  Entre 
Rios. 

It  is  served  by  the  Argentine  North-Eastern  Railway 
system,  which  Hnks  up  and  is  in  every  way  closely  con- 
nected with  the  Entre  Rios  Railway  :  and  by  a  small 
narrow-gauge  industrial  railway  which  runs  through  a  large 
area  of  Quebracho  forest  and  also  serves  some  sugar  mills. 

Other  communication  is  by  old-world  diligences.  Another 
railway  is,  however,  projected  to  run  almost  along  the  north 
boundary  of  the  Province  from  the  City  of  Corrientes  to 
Posadas  in  Misiones. 

The  inhabitants  of  Corrientes,  like  their  Paraguayan 
neighbours,  from  whom,  especially  in  the  more  Northern 
parts  of  this  Province,  they  differ  but  slightly  in  racial 
characteristics,  are  the  true  lineal  descendants  of  Spanish 
soldiery  and  their  native  Guarani  Indian  wives.  They  are 
as  a  rule  a  pleasant  enough  people,  good-humoured  and 
somewhat  indolent.  As  to  the  latter  quality  one  must, 
however,  remember  that  in  Corrientes  one  is  already  among 
subtropical  vegetation  (Palms  begin  to  rear  their  tufted 
heads  in  the  North  of  Entre  Rios).  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  examples  of  this  vegetation  is  the  Lapacho  with  its 
great  branches  of  pink  flowers. 

One  must  not  delay  long,  however,  if  one  wish  to  still 
catch  the  old-world  flavour  of  Corrientes.  Its  capital, 
founded  in  1588  with  one  of  the  long  names  in  which  the 
Spanish  conquerors  appear  to  have  dehghted,  namely,  San 
Juan  de  la  Vera  de  las  siete  Corrientes  (St.  John  of  Vera  of 
the  Seven  Streams),  is  already  provided  with  modem  water- 
works and  electric  trams.  Still,  one  yet  finds  many  mysterious 
looking  low  houses  with  vertically  barred  windows,  and 
covered  verandahs   lining   long   narrow   streets.      Modern 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       155 

buildings,  however,  are  rapidly  spoiling  the  attraction  of  the 
place  for  those  who  appreciate  the  charm  of  more  leisurely, 
spacious  times.  That  charm  yet  lingers  in  the  city  of 
Corrientes,  but,  as  has  been  said,  is  already  being  startled 
into  flight  by  modernity. 

The  latter  and  Corrientes  are,  nevertheless,  still  fairly  far 
apart.  It  would  be  curious  to  know  how  many  inhabitants 
of  the  Federal  Capital  have  even  the  faintest  notion  of  what 
City  of  the  Seven  Streams  is  like  (?).  Very  few  indeed  ; 
except  those  who  have  or  have  had  direct  interests  in  the 
latter  place.  The  notions  of  the  rest  would  be  similar  to 
those  of  the  average  European  regarding  the  Pampa. 

Corrientes  is  for  the  most  part  well  watered,  and  has 
immense  tracts  of  excellent  pasturage. 

Besides  its  Capital,  Corrientes  possesses  as  its,  even  more 
commercially  important,  centres  the  towns  of  Goya,  famous 
for  its  cheeses,  Ituzaingo,  Bella  Vista,  and  Empedrado,  all 
ports  or  rather  possible  ports  on  the  Parand,  Mercedes,  the 
centre  of  prosperous  sheep-farming  districts,  and  Curuzu 
Cuatia  and  Monte  Caseros,  with  good  railroad  facilities. 

With  the  necessary  expenditure  on  wharves,  etc.,  Cor- 
rientes could  be  brought  into  a  much  greater  economic 
activity  than  it  shows  signs  of  as  yet ;  by  utilizing  its  great 
natural  riparian  means  of  communication,  although  the 
River  Uruguay  is  at  this  height  difficult  of  navigation, 
owing  chiefly  to  the  rapidity  of  its  current  and  frequent 
floods. 

The  Correntino  has  not  yet,  however,  developed  much 
commercial  enterprise.  His  cattle  still  show  the  native 
long  horned  and  limbed  characteristics  of  wilder  days  and 
he  himself  seems  to  find  it  less  trouble  to  get  tobacco,  mate, 
sugar,  coffee  and  many  other  things  from  Brazil  or  Paraguay 
than  to  grow  and  manufacture  them  himself ;  as  he  could 
do  easily  and  profitably.  Much  of  his  nature  is  Indian  ;  to 
be  modified  in  time  by  the  overwhelming  forces  of  civiliza- 
tion. 


156    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

One  cannot  leave  Corrientes  without  mention  of  the  lake 
Ibera  in  the  North  of  the  Province,  a  vast  natural  hollow 
filled  with  water,  the  surface  of  which  is  in  many  parts 
covered  so  solidly  with  interlaced  bamboos,  grasses  and 
aquatic  plants  as  to  enable  one  to  walk  on  it  as  if  on  a  huge 
raft.  There  has  been  much  talk  of  reclaiming  the  land  by 
draining  Lake  Iberd,  a  task  which  owing  to  the  gradients  of 
the  surrounding  lands  would  not  present  great  difficulties  ; 
if  so  be  that  the  lake  is  not  connected  by  subterranean 
channels  with  the  Rivers  Parand  and  Upper  Uruguay,  as 
there  are  several  reasons  to  suppose  it  may  be. 

The  islands  of  this  lake  form  a  perfect  zoological  garden 
of  animals  and  reptiles  long  since  practically  extinct  in  the 
surrounding  country ;  among  which  are  Jaguars,  Alligators 
and  Boa  Constrictors. 

The  present  writer  remembers  an  interesting  if  somewhat 
terrifying  collection  of  such  and  other  wild  specimens  being 
cast  up  a  little  more  than  a  decade  ago  on  the  river  shores  of 
the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  near  to  the  Federal  Capital, 
by  the  swollen  waters  of  the  Parana  during  extraordinary 
floods.  These  creatures  were  washed  down  clinging  to  trunks 
of  trees  and  islets  of  intertwined  vegetation  which  had  been 
torn  away  by  the  force  of  the  waters.  It  is  safe  to  assume 
that  they  were  much  more  terrified  than  were  even  the 
peaceable  inhabitants  of  the  places  where  they  involuntarily 
landed. 

The  illustrious  General  San  Martin  was  a  Correntino,  born 
in  what  was  once  called  Yapeyu,  now  an  important  Live 
Stock  centre  and  renamed  after  him. 

A  monument  has  also  been  erected  there  to  his  memory,  a 
patriotic  embellishment  which  no  Argentine  township,  how- 
ever, is  without. 

SAN   LUIS 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Province 
of  La  Rioja,  on  the  West  by  the  Provinces  of  San  Juan  and 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES      157 

Mendoza,  on  the  East  by  the  Province  of  C6rdoba  and  on  the 
South  by  the  Territory  of  the  Pampa  Central. 

Until  the  coming  of  Alfalfa,  San  Luis  was  chiefly  interest- 
ing for  its  mineral  possibilities.  Even  now,  after  Salta  and 
Jujuy,  it  is  the  most  sparsely  populated  of  the  Argentine 
Provinces.  Nevertheless,  it  now  has  large  areas  under 
wheat ;  and  sandy  salty  tracts  which  not  long  ago,  in  common 
with  similar  tracts  in  the  West  of  the  Province  of  Buenos 
Aires  and  in  the  Territory  of  the  Pampa  Central,  were 
looked  on  as  useless  deserts,  are  covered  with  an  extra- 
ordinarily luxuriant  growth  of  lucerne.  The  salty  nature 
of  the  soil  is  favourable  to  this  valuable  forage  plant,  and 
its  tap  roots  find  their  way  easily  through  the  sandy 
surface  to  the  closely  adjacent  damp  subsoil  and  surface 
waters. 

Irrigation  is  destined  to  play  an  important  role  in  other 
parts  of  San  Luis. 

At  present  this  Province  runs  Santa  Fe  very  close  in 
point  of  number  of  Live  Stock  ;  though  the  general  average 
of  quality  is  a  good  way  behind  that  found  in  the  ^  home  " 
Provinces  or  C6rdoba. 

San  Luis  cultivates  an  appreciable  quantity  of  good 
table  grapes,  and,  as  is  noticed  in  another  chapter,  also 
produces  some  wine. 

The  Province  is  intersected  in  its  North  and  Central  parts 
by  four  lines  of  the  Buenos  Aires  Pacific  Railway  and  in  the 
South  by  two  of  the  Buenos  Aires  Western  Railway. 

It  is  evident  that  the  mineral  deposits  of  San  Luis  were 
worked  in  the  prehistoric  days  prior  to  the  Spanish  Conquest, 
but  little  has  been  done  to  exploit  them  in  modern  times 
except  as  regards  the  beautiful  green  marble,  commonly 
called  Brazilian  Onyx,  large  quantities  of  which  are  ex- 
ported. Gold  mining  has  been  attempted  in  modern  times, 
but  without  as  yet  any  very  appreciable  results.  San  Luis, 
however,  produces  a  certain  regular  supply  of  Wolfram. 

The  people  of  San  Luis  are  frequently  accused  of  indolence. 


158    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Certainly  the  Province  is  not  a  wealthy  one,  nor  do  its 
inhabitants  appear  over  alert  to  seize  the  opportunities 
which  nature  and  modern  methods  combined  now  offer  them 


SANTIAGO   DEL   ESTERO 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Province  of 
Salta  and  the  National  Territory  of  Formosa,  on  the  West  by 
the  Province  of  Tucuman  and  Catamarca,  on  the  East  by  the 
National  Territory  of  the  Chaco  and  the  Province  of  Santa 
Fe  and  on  the  South  by  the  Province  of  Cordoba. 

Irrigation  has  led  to  a  considerable  development  of  wheat- 
growing  in  this  Province  and  to  irrigation  it  must  chiefly 
owe  its  future  progress  ;  for,  in  its  almost  tropical  climate, 
rain  only  falls  in  the  summer  months  and  usually  is  absorbed 
almost  as  soon  as  it  falls  by  a  sandy  and  dusty  soil. 

The  average  temperature  of  Santiago  del  Estero  is  highly 
favourable  to  maize,  but,  here  again,  the  question  of  water 
supply  arises,  only  to  be  met  by  artificial  means.  Already 
principal  and  subsidiary  irrigation  canals  have  been  con- 
structed in  the  areas  through  which  pass  the  two  rivers  of 
the  Province,  the  Dulce  and  the  Saladillo,  and  further  works 
of  the  kind  are  in  active  contemplation. 

The  salt  sandy  soil  of  much  of  this  Province  has  been 
found  as  favourable  to  Alfalfa  as  such  soil  is  elsewhere  when 
there  is  water  not  far  down  or  at  least  a  damp  subsoil.  So 
that  Santiago  boasts  of  an  already  large  and  an  increasing 
number  of  Alfalfares,  as  lucerne-bearing  lands  are  called. 
The  chief  industries  of  the  North  of  this  Province  are  in 
connection  with  its  forestal  products,  the  cutting  and  rough 
trimming  of  Quebracho  wood,  firewood  and  charcoal  burning. 
The  people  engaged  in  these  occupations  are  mostly  totally 
uneducated  and  are  unacquainted  with  any  of  the  higher 
developments  of  civilization.  They  are  indeed  in  some 
respects  similar  to  the  stock-riding  Gaucho  of  the  past 
in  other  provinces,  but  without   the  intelligence  he  dis- 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES      159 

played  within  the  Hmits  of  his  punctiHous  observance  of 
custom. 

Dancing,  card-playing  and  drinking  are  the  only  amenities 
of  life  known  to  the  wood-cutters  of  Santiago  del  Estero, 
unless  fighting  be  added  as  a  pendant  to,  and  consequence 
of,  the  last-named  pastime  of  alcohoHc  indulgence.  Like  all 
Gauchos,  however,  they  are  really  only  dangerous  to  one 
another  in  this  regard,  a  stranger  being  treated  by  them  with 
all  the  good-humoured  courtesy  at  their  command. 

The  Santagueiios  of  the  forests  have  been  singled  out  by 
one  very  observant  and  reliable  writer  on  South  American 
countries,  Monsieur  Paul  Walle,i  as  having  superstitious 
faith  in  "  Curanderos  "  or  quack  doctors,  people  of  their  own 
class.  They  do  indeed  show  a  perfectly  childlike  faith  in 
quack  nostrums  ;  but  in  this,  leave  must  be  taken  to  say, 
they  are  by  no  means  alone  among  the  rural  populations  of 
the  River  Plate.  The  present  writer  has  known  the  queerest 
kinds  of  remedies  believed  in  implicitly  and  practised  even 
in  that  hub  of  progress,  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires. 

Active  official  efforts  have  for  some  time  been  devoted  to 
the  weeding  out  of  Curanderos  and  Curanderas  ;  but,  as 
in  the  mediaeval  days  of  England,  they  are  still  sought  out, 
more  or  less  secretly,  by  neighbours  who  have  infinitely 
more  faith  in  their  "  cures  "  than  they  would  have  in  the 
treatment  of  whole  Colleges  of  Physicians. 

Possibly  these  quacks  often  do  cure  by  suggestion.  The 
writer  has,  for  instance,  heard  strong  oral  evidence  of  the 
cfftcacy  for  toothache  of  expectorating  into  the  mouth  of  a 
frog,  caught  at  a  certain  hour  of  the  night.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  about  it.  Many  people  have  been  entirely  reheved 
from  pain  by  that  simple  expedient.  The  rather  revolting 
rite  performed,  the  frog  must  be  set  at  liberty  and  carries 
away  the  pain  with  it  ! 

Much  of  this  quackery  is  relatively  harmless,  but  much  of 
it  is  also  highly  dangerous,  not  only  to  the  actual  patient, 

^  L' Argentine  telle  qu'ellc  est. 


160    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

but  to  the  community  in  general ;  as  preventing  the  former 
from  seeking  orthodox  treatment  which,  while  really  curing 
him,  would  at  the  same  time  prevent  the  spread  of  infectious 
and  contagious  disease. 

To  sum  up,  Santiago  del  Estero  undoubtedly  has  a  rich 
future  before  it,  dependent  chiefly  on  irrigation. 


TUCUMAN 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Province  of 
Salta,  on  the  West  and  South  by  the  Province  of  Catamarca 
and  on  the  East  by  the  Province  of  Santiago  del  Estero. 

It  has  the  smallest  superficial  area  of  all  the  Argentine 
Provinces  ;  being  less  than  one-eleventh  the  size  of  Buenos 
Aires  and  less  than  one-fifth  that  of  Santiago  del  Estero. 

It,  however,  is  a  very  important  Province,  because  it  pro- 
duces over  90%  of  the  whole  sugar  output  of  the  Republic. 
It  also  grows  an  appreciable  quantity  of  maize,  but  when,  in 
Argentina,  one  says  Tucuman  one  is  almost  invariably 
thought  to  be  about  to  speak  of  sugar. 

It  always  has  been  the  sugar-producing  area  of  the  River 
Plate  Territories  ;  from  the  time  of  the  Jesuit  Missionaries, 
say,  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  first 
modern  sugar-manufacturing  machinery  was  set  up  in 
Tucuman  in  1879. 

The  whole  matter  of  the  Argentine  Sugar  industry  was  for 
long  hedged  about  with  fiscal  and  other  questions  and  a 
great  sensitiveness  on  the  part  of  the  growers  and  refiners 
in  regard  to  their  discussion.  That  a  certain  number  of 
companies  divided  the  whole  of  the  industry  between  them 
was  undoubted  fact,  as  was  the  equally  obvious  one  that  they 
carried  on  business  in  accordance  rather  with  their  ideas  of 
their  own  commercial  interests  than  in  any  larger  or  more 
philanthropic  spirit.  Sugar  is  still  much  dearer  for  the 
Argentine  consumer  than  there  seems  any  good  reason  for. 
Special  legislature  has  operated  until  recently  as  an  excep- 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       161 

tional  protection  to  this  industry,  thus  maintaining,  as  was 
vehemently  urged  in  many  quarters,  a  monopoly,  to  the 
extent  of  being  relieved  of  any  foreign  competition,  in  the 
hands  of  the  Tucuman  Companies  who  conducted  their 
affairs  in  a  mutually  friendly  fashion. 

Their  opponents  throughout  the  country  said  that  Tucu- 
man (the  sugar  interests  there  are  still  inseparably  connected 
with  Provincial  politics  and  politicians)  not  only  waxed  fat 
at  the  public  expense,  but  did  so  by  means  and  methods 
opposed  to  the  public  interest.  Certainly  legislature  offered 
temptation  to  artificial  limitation  of  output,  and  it  was 
chiefly  in  regard  to  this — burning  of  productive  cane-fields 
and  so  forth — that  the  sugar  companies  long  stood  accused. 

On  whichever  side  the  balance  of  the  arguments  for  or 
against  the  doings  of  the  Tucumdn  sugar  industry  may  have 
lain  it  may  be  safely  asserted  that  no  political  influence  can 
nowadays  continue  to  bolster  up  commercial  malpractices  of 
any  magnitude  in  Argentina.  The  National  Government 
has  already  seen  and  will  see  to  it  that  no  hole-in-the-corner 
Provincial  politics  shall  interfere  with  the  National  welfare 
and  credit.  Influence,  although  still  powerful  in  minor 
matters,  can  no  longer  suffice  to  avoid  any  matter  of  public 
importance  being  exposed  to  examination  by  the  full  light 
of  day. 

Tucuman  is  well  aware  of  this,  and  therefore  can  be  relied 
on,  and  indeed  must  be,  to  trim  her  sails  to  the  healthy  wind 
by  which  the  course  of  the  Republic  is  now  determined. 

It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  the  Tucuman  Sugar  Companies' 
argument  in  their  own  defence  to  the  suggestion  of  an 
inequitable  monopoly  exercised  by  them  is,  in  effect,  "  Well, 
supposing  that  we  have  been  making  very  large  profits  of 
late  years,  we  have  borne  the  brunt  of  hard  times  for  many 
more,  before  the  industry  had  developed  to  its  present  extent 
and  before  we  were  able  to  obtain  assistance  or  even  practical 
encouragement  from  the  State.  And  besides,  were  we  wrong 
in  making  hay  whilst  the  sun  shone  ?  Any  day  may  bring 
II 


162    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

us  competition  in  the  shape  of  the  rise  of  new  cane-fields 
in  other  Northern  districts  of  this  fertile  Republic." 

This  is  at  least  sympathetic  if  not  strictly  legitimate 
reasoning. 

In  the  meantime  the  Province  of  Tucumdn  has  grown 
prosperous,  and  the  employment  of  more  enhghtened 
methods  of  conducting  all  branches  of  its  sugar  industry 
has  recently  resulted  in  enhanced  prosperity  coupled  with  a 
largely  increased  output.  The  City  of  Tucuman,  its  Capital, 
one  of  the  pleasantest  and  most  progressive  towns  in  Argen- 
tina, has  no  less  than  five  different  railway  stations  pertain- 
ing to  lines  connecting  it  with  Buenos  Aires  (of  which  the 
Central  Argentine  is  the  most  direct)  and  local  systems. 

The  vegetation  of  the  Plazas  and  Boulevards  of  the 
City  is  subtropical  and  social  demands  have  provided 
Tucuman  with  an  ornate  Casino  connected  with  a  vast 
modern  Hotel  and  theatre.  Electric  light  and  tramways 
abound  in  its  orange-flower  scented  streets  and  public 
places,  among  which  must  now  be  counted  a  huge  Park 
designed  to  celebrate  the  1910  centenary.  A  special  building 
enshrines  the  historic  room  in  which  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  signed. 

Buildings  of  the  Colonial  period  still  exist  in  Tucuman 
and  its  outskirts,  but  the  dominant  tendency  is  towards 
modernity  in  architecture  and  all  else.  The  City  is  pic- 
turesquely situated  in  a  valley  among  hills  which  appear  to 
surround  it  and  give  it  a  curious  appearance  of  having,  with 
its  Casino,  brilliantly  lit  avenues  and  gardens  and  its 
luxuriant  vegetation,  sprung  into  existence  as  a  scene  on 
some  vast  stage. 

It  has  a  winter  season  of  ever-growing  social  importance ; 
during  which  the  great  Sugar  Families  occupy  their  palatial 
villas  and  display  dark  beauty  and  grace  to  the  music  of 
the  band  in  the  Plaza  Independencia  and  at  the  Casino  and 
Theatre. 

Irrigation  is  easily  attained  over  the  most  part  of  this 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       163 

Province,  from  the  Dulce  River  and  its  many  tributaries  as 
well  as  from  several  other  streams. 

Tucumdn  grows  some  wheat,  but  not  much,  its  principal 
crops  (after,  of  course,  sugar)  being  maize  and  alfalfa. 

It  has  comparatively  little  live  stock,  owing  largely  to  the 
general  humidity  of  its  soil.  It  has,  however,  an  exception- 
ally large  aggregate  of  population  for  its  size  in  comparison 
with  other  Provinces. 

Parts  of  Tucumdn  are  forest,  part  mountainous  with  peaks 
clad  in  everlasting  snow  from  which  accumulate  innumerable 
turbulent  mountain  streams.  For  picturesque  and  varied 
scenery  of  almost  every  kind  Tucumdn  is  perhaps  pre- 
eminent in  the  Republic.  Its  valleys  are  with  very  few 
exceptions  fertile  and  well  watered. 

This  Province  has  several  fairly  important  towns  situated 
on  the  railways  which  traverse  its  central  and  southern 
districts. 

CATAMARCA 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  that  of  Salta 
and  the  National  Territory  of  Los  Andes,  on  the  West  by 
Chile,  on  the  South  by  the  Provinces  of  La  Rioja  and  Cordoba 
and  on  the  East  by  those  of  Santiago  del  Estero  and  Tucumdn. 
As  can  be  imagined  from  its  geographical  situation,  it  pro- 
duces a  certain  quantity  of  maize  and,  given  advantages,  to 
be  mentioned  later,  undoubtedly  could  produce  a  great  deal 
more.  As  yet  it  is  sparsely  populated,  and  the  influence  of 
progress  is  only  just  being  forced  upon  it  by  a  paternal 
National  Government  which  not  only  has  irrigation  schemes 
in  hand,  but  has  already  constructed  a  railway — the  North 
Argentina — one  of  the  new  Government  lines,  to  afford 
transport  for  the  future  wealth  of  this  hitherto  dormant 
Province.  Irrigation,  transport  and  fresh  elements  and 
methods  of  labour  are  the  three  requisites  for  Catamarca's 
advancement.  She  has  plenty  of  what  is  easily  convertible 
into  fertile  soil ;  and,  without  doubt,  rich  mineral  deposits. 


164    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Both  of  these  resources  would  long  ago  have  been  ad- 
vantageously exploited  had  the  population  of  the  Argentine 
Republic  attained  larger  figures  than  as  yet  represent  it. 

Catamarca  is  mountainous  over  a  large  portion  of  its 
area,  but  this  area  is  interspersed  with  very  fertile  valleys 
and  possesses  a  vast  tableland,  called  the  Campo  del 
PucARA.  In  a  hollow  of  this  tableland  is  the  capital  city  of 
Catamarca. 

There  are  plenty  of  mountain  streams  from  which  to 
irrigate  the  greater  portion  of  the  soil  of  this  Province,  and 
also  a  water  bed  not  far  from  the  surface  from  which  irri- 
gation could  be  obtained.  At  present — most  of  the  surface 
soil  being  extremely  loose  and  porous — the  water  brought 
down  by  the  mountain  streams  is  immediately  absorbed,  and 
the  climate  generally  is  dry.  The  mean  temperature 
naturally  varies  according  to  altitude,  but  the  lower  valleys 
are  very  hot  in  summer-time. 

The  City  of  Catamarca  is  still  a  veritable  sleepy  hollow, 
poor  and  indolent,  but  picturesque  with  the  gardens  and 
orange  and  other  orchards  of  Colonial  times. 

The  population  of  this  Province  is  mostly  of  mixed 
Spanish  and  Indian  origin  ;  as  indeed  is  that  of  practically 
all  the  northern  outlying  Provinces  and  Territories  of  the 
Republic. 

The  needs  of  these  people  are  few,  and  they  continue  in  a 
lethargic  condition  of  conservative  content.  One  district, 
however,  of  Catamarca — Andalgala — boasts  of  an  aristocracy 
of  pure  Spanish  blood,  resident  since  the  early  days  of  the 
Conquest. 

At  present  all  the  best  brains  of  Catamarca  find  their  way 
to  Buenos  Aires  ;  in  despair  of  the  small  scope,  and  even 
opposition  to  any  suggestion  of  innovation,  offered  by  their 
native  Province.  Still,  Nature  in  Catamarca,  as  elsewhere 
throughout  Argentina,  only  awaits  the  call  of  man  to  respond 
with  rich  gifts. 

There  is  no  doubt  about  the  existence  of  valuable  mineral 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       165 

deposits,  silver,  copper  and  especially  tin,  in  Catamarca. 
The  chief  obstacle  to  the  due  exploitation  of  these  up  to  the 
present  has  been  the  difficulty  and  cost  of  transport.  The 
railway  should  soon,  however,  render  the  working  of  these 
mines  profitable  on  a  much  larger  scale  than  hitherto  has 
been  commercially  possible. 

LA   RIOJA 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  and  North-East 
by  the  Province  of  Catamarca,  on  the  West  and  South-West 
by  Chile  and  the  Province  of  San  Juan,  on  the  South  by  the 
Province  of  San  Luis,  and  on  the  East  by  Catamarca,  again, 
and  the  Province  of  Cordoba. 

La  Rioja  is  another  outlying  Province  of  which  can  be 
said,  as  of  so  many  as  yet  comparatively  unproductive  parts 
of  Argentina,  that  water,  labour  and  transport  alone  are 
needed  to  make  them  rich  far  beyond  any  dreams  of  avarice 
which  have  yet  occupied  the  minds  of  their  few  and  easy- 
going inhabitants.  Maize  flourishes  in  this  hot,  dry  climate, 
as  do  all  manner  of  subtropical  and  even  tropical  fruits, 
including  dates,  wherever  water  is  available.  Even  wheat 
grows  splendidly  in  some  districts,  given  irrigation.  And, 
as  in  many  other  salty  and  saltpetre-impregnated  soils, 
there  are  large  areas  in  La  Rioja  highly  favourable  to  the 
growth  of  Alfalfa. 

At  present  this  Province  is  more  sparsely  populated  than 
any  other  in  the  Republic  except  Jujuy,  but  it  boasts  of  a 
fair  number  of  (mostly  native)  cattle.  As  in  all  the  Andine 
Provinces  and  Territories  there  is  a  relatively  considerable 
export  trade  of  cattle  on  the  hoof  to  Chile. 

La  Rioja  produces  some  wine,  and  at  some  future  date 
will,  no  doubt,  produce  more,  in  view  of  the  advantages  for 
vine  culture  of  its  soil  in  many  parts  and  its  warm,  dry 
climate.  At  present  the  wine  of  La  Rioja  is  mostly  con- 
sumed in  the  province  itself  and  the  immediately  neigh- 
bouring Provinces. 


166    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Large  irrigating  works  are  in  progress,  and  more  are 
under  consideration  by  the  National  Government  for 
the  development  of  the  agricultural  industries  of  this 
Province. 

Contemporaneously  with  or  possibly  before  such  develop- 
ment will  have  been  able,  on  account  of  lack  of  population, 
to  assume  any  very  notable  progress,  one  may  reasonably 
expect  to  see  a  largely  increased  activity  in  the  exploitation 
of  La  Rioja's  mineral  wealth  (apparently  much  greater  than 
that  of  Catamarca)  by  reason  of  the  enormously  increased 
facilities  for  transport  afforded  by  the  National  North 
Argentine  Railway.  La  Rioja  has  rich  deposits  of  silver, 
copper,  nickel,  tin,  cobalt,  topaz  and  many  beautiful  kinds 
of  marble. 

The  mining  district  best  known  at  present  is  that  of  La 
Famatina  ;  from  which  a  cable-way  of  35  kilometres  in 
length  was  constructed  by  the  National  Government  some 
years  ago  to  connect  the  hillside  mines  with  the  rail-head  at 
Chilecito. 

La  Rioja  has,  however,  many  other  evidently  rich  mineral 
areas,  including  some  containing  quartz  and  alluvial  gold. 
The  unsystematic  exploitation  of  these  has  as  yet  given  but 
small  satisfactory  results. 

The  city  of  La  Rioja,  the  Capital,  is  still  in  a  state  of 
arrested  development,  similarly  with  Catamarca,  only  even 
more  so.  It  has  not  yet  experienced  sufficient  prosperity  to 
enable  it  to  recover  from  the  paralysing  effects  of  the  civil 
disturbances  which  raged  in  and  around  it  for  very  many 
years  after  the  overthrow  of  the  Spanish  rule.  The  people, 
the  great  majority  of  whom  have  a  large  admixture  of  native 
Indian  blood,  are,  however,  of  a  rather  more  lively  and 
energetic  disposition  than  their  Catamarcan  neighbours. 
This  is  no  doubt  due  to  a  difference  in  their  racial  origin  ;  the 
Indian  ancestors  of  the  natives  of  La  Rioja  having  ap- 
parently belonged  to  tribes  which  in  bygone  times  inhabited, 
or  were  in  close  relations  with  those  which  inhabited,  Peru 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       167 

and  thus  possibly  absorbed  something  of  the  Inca  civiliza- 
tion. 

The  surface  of  La  Rioja  has  two  general  aspects  ;  one 
part  is  broken  and  mountainous  and  the  other  an  immense 
plain,  needing,  as  has  been  said,  only  labour  and  irrigation 
to  yield  rich  agricultural  results.  The  one  important  river 
of  the  Province  is  the  Bermejo.  The  mineral  wealth  of  this 
Province  lies  almost  if  not  entirely  exclusively,  in  its  moun- 
tainous districts. 

JUJUY 

Jujuy  has  its  very  special  interest  for  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  since  it  affords,  in  the  history  of  the  Leach  family,  a 
striking  example  of  the  colonizing  enterprise  and  patience  of 
that  race. 

Look  at  the  position  of  Jujuy  on  the  map  and  imagine 
what  colonizing  must  have  been  like  in  the  middle  of  last 
century  when  the  brothers  Leach  first  settled  in  what  has 
since  become  a  Province,  but  then  was  a  wild  district 
inhabited  by  native  Indians. 

One  of  the  brothers,  especially,  Mr.  Walter  Leach,  seems 
to  have  exercised  a  peculiar  and  highly  beneficial  influence 
over  these  people,  and  managed  to  introduce  ideas  of  in- 
dustry and  gradual  civilization  to  tribes  whose  former  lives 
had  been  mostly  occupied  with  warfare  one  with  another. 

Now  we  may  almost  say  that  "  Leach  "  is  synonymous 
with  "Jujuy  "  and  vice  versa,  and  enterprises  initiated  by 
this  family  now  embrace  all  branches  of  industry  of  which 
the  Province  is  yet  capable,  including  large  sugar  plantations 
and  machinery.  Now,  the  National  Central  Northern 
Argentine  Railway  connects  Jujuy  with  the  outer  world, 
but  before  its  advent  it  was  indeed  a  far-off  land  to  be 
reached  only  after  many  weeks'  arduous  journeying.  Jujuy 
is  the  most  distant  and,  after  Tucumdn,  the  smallest  Province 
of  the  Republic. 

It  is  bounded  on  the  North  and  North-West  by  Bolivia, 


168    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

on  the  West  by  the  National  Territory  of  Los  Andes  and  on 
the  South  and  East  by  the  Province  of  Salta. 

Jujuy  produces  not  inconsiderable  quantities  of  wheat, 
maize,  barley  and  alfalfa  and,  as  has  been  said,  sugar. 

In  the  North  it  has  a  number  of  salt  lakes,  which  are 
exploited  commercially,  as  also  are  some  deposits  of  borax. 

The  climate  of  Jujuy  is  very  varied,  according  to  altitude, 
but  in  general  is  much  more  temperate  than  the  actual  lati- 
tude of  the  Province  would  lead  one  to  suppose.  There  is 
always  a  considerable  rainfall  during  hot  weather.  Its  chief 
river  is  the  Rio  Grande  de  Humahuaca,  a  tributary  of  the 
Bermejo,  which  coming  from  the  North  curves  in  a  semi- 
circle through  the  Central  and  South-Eastem  parts  of  the 
Province. 

Jujuy,  with  its  broken  surface,  claims  rivalry  with 
Tucuman  as  the  most  picturesque  of  the  Argentine  Provinces. 
In  some  of  its  southern  districts  the  vegetation  is  tropical. 
In  the  North-West  there  is  a  high  tableland  much  of  which 
is  dry  and  practically  desert,  interspersed  with  fertile  valleys. 

In  the  South  of  the  Province  the  population  is  of  mixed 
racial  origin  with  a  very  large  element  of  native  Indian 
blood.  In  the  North  it  is  practically  pure  Indian.  The 
native  Humahuaca  dialect  is  preponderant  everywhere, 
even  in  Spanish  as  spoken  there.  In  the  North  there  is 
little  or  no  pretension  to  speak  anything  but  Humahuaca. 

The  Capital,  however,  the  City  of  Jujuy,  was,  strangely 
enough,  the  first  Argentine  town  to  have  its  streets  paved. 
It  was  the  scene  of  the  assassination  of  General  Lavalle,  one 
of  the  heroes  of  the  Wars  of  Independence,  and  possesses 
the  original  flag  of  General  Belgrano,  the  blue  and  white 
chosen  by  him  for  the  nascent  Republic,  and  ever  since 
retained  by  it.  Later  the  National  Colours  and  those  of 
Uruguay  (a  slightly  different  arrangement  of  the  same  blue 
and  white)  were  officially  emblazoned  with  the  golden  "  Sun 
of  May  "  ;  the  25th  of  May,  18 10,  being  the  date  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  from  the  rule  of  Spain. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       169 

As  has  been  mentioned  above,  most  of  such  prosperity  as 
Jujuy  as  yet  possesses  is  due  to  the  patient  energy  of  the 
Leach  family.  Such  administrative  and  fiscal  discredit  as 
attaches  to  the  Province  is,  on  the  other  hand,  due  to  the 
native  element  among  its  politicians.  These  evils  inevitably 
must  soon  be  swept  away  by  the  advance  of  civilized  ideas 
and  necessity  for  better  management  by  public  authority. 
The  mass  of  the  population  will,  no  doubt,  continue  to  live 
in  its  own  long-accustomed  primitive  fashion. 

It  hardly  contains  the  racial  elements  of  rapid  advance 
towards  a  much  higher  civilization. 

Future  immigration  must  be  relied  on  to  do  much  to 
develop  Jujuy's  natural  resources. 

At  present  a  certain  amount  of  rather  primitive,  and 
some  contraband,  export  and  import  trade  is  done  with 
Bolivia  in  the  Northern  parts  of  the  Province. 

Jujuy  is  poor  in  Live  Stock  even  of  the  native  kinds. 


SALTA 

With  Salta  we  complete  the  list  of  the  less  important 
outlying  Argentine  Provinces. 

Like  Jujuy,  it  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  Bolivia,  on  the 
West  by  Jujuy  and  the  National  Territory  of  Los  Andes,  on 
the  South  by  Tucumdn  and  Santiago  del  Estero,  and  on  the 
East  by  the  National  Territory  of  Formosa. 

Salta  is  indeed  historic  ground  ;  so  full  of  reminiscence  of 
the  Wars  of  Independence  that  it  may  almost  be  called  the 
cradle  of  the  Republic.  It  was  also  in  Salta  that  Jabez 
Balfour  was  at  length  taken  into  custody,  after  a  long 
struggle  for  an  extradition  treaty  between  Great  Britain 
and  Argentina. 

The  writer  is  well  acquainted  with  a  gentleman,  since  then 
become  a  prominent  figure  in  the  railway  world  of  the  River 
Plate,  who  "  specially  "  drove  the  engine  of  the  train  which 
brought  Balfour  down  to  civihzation  and  captivity.     The 


170    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

prisoner  had  money  which  he  had  spent  freely  among  his 
new  neighbours,  and  attempts  at  rescue  were  expected.  So 
the  train  rushed  on  its  downward  course  with  a  velocity  to 
which  the  then  permanent  way  and  rails  were  totally  un- 
accustomed, but,  as  all  the  world  was  soon  made  aware, 
arrived  at  its  destination  without  accident. 

The  prisoner  had  been  the  victim  of  his  own  luxurious 
habits,  for  he  had  grown  so  fat  that  it  was  impossible  to 
convey  him  through  frontier  mountain  passes  into  Bolivia, 
as  his  friends  had  intended  and  as  would  have  been  possible, 
in  point  of  time,  to  do  before  the  expected  warrant  for  his 
arrest  could  have  found  its  way  into  the  not  too  willing 
hands  of  the  local  authorities. 

Until  his  recent  death,  the  present  generation  had  scarcely 
heard  of  Jabez  Balfour.  Yet  he  was  widely  celebrated  in 
contemporaneous  popular  song  as  "  The  man  who  broke  the 
Bank  at  Monte  Carlo." 

In  Salta  is  still  to  be  found  a  much  more  really  interesting 
personage  in  the  Gaucho,  the  Cavaliere  Rusticano  of  the 
River  Plate  and  the  hero  of  all  its  earlier  poetry  and  romance. 
He  of  the  guitar-accompanied  improvised  verse,  of  the  quick 
flashing  knife  and  equally  quick  Rebenque.*  He  was  no 
small  element  in  the  victories  won  over  the  Spanish  soldiery 
nor  in  the  long  years  of  civil  war  which  followed  Independence. 
He  is  still  in  Salta ;  one  of  the  last  parts  of  the  Republic  in 
which  he  can  be  found.  Comparatively  uncontaminated  by 
the  encroachments  of  the  drab  uniformity  of  civilization. 

He  remains  romantic  and  brutal,  chivalrous  and 
treacherous,  hospitable  and  quick  to  resent  the  mere  im- 
plication of  an  insult.  Still  a  cattle  herd  adept  with  lazo 
or  boleadora,^  a  nomad  ever  seeking  fresh  fields  and  pastures 

*  Native  riding  whip  of  solid  hide,  straight  and  tapering. 

*  The  boleadora  consists  of  two  or  of  three  round  stones  encased  in 
laide  and  attached,  each  by  an  independent  thong,  to  the  end  of  a  lasso. 
The  thongs  with  the  stones  are  swung  round  the  head  and,  suddenly 
released,  twine  themselves  round  the  legs  of  the  animal  to  be  caught ; 
which  is  thrown  down  by  the  jerk  of  the  tightened  lasso. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       171 

new  within  the  limits  of  his  native  territory.  Give  him  a 
uniform  he  is  a  very  useful  soldier,  and  a  fair  military  police- 
man, save  for  his  rather  erratic  fits  of  truculence.  For  the 
rest  no  good  at  all  outside  of  the  few  spheres  mapped  out 
for  him  by  the  limitation  of  his  own  strongly  marked 
individuahty.  But  he  will  always  know  again  an  animal 
he  has  once  seen,  and  will  track  out  a  lost  sheep  across  a 
very  maze  of  confused  spoor. 

Mr.  Herbert  Gibson^  has  written  of  the  gaucho  with  true 
feeling  and  appreciation  in  the  following  words  : — 

Skilled  in  horsemanship,  quick  of  hand  and  of  eye  ;  in  his 
beginnings  the  Arab  and  nomad  of  the  plains ;  indifferent  of 
his  neighbour's  life,  for  his  own  he  carried  in  his  hand  to  risk  at 
the  first  hazard,  yet  "  loyal  to  his  own  law  "  even  in  his  most 
lawless  exploits — the  gaucho  of  the  Pampa  constitutes  the 
genuine  emblem  of  the  Argentine  genius.  He  is  the  materialized 
expression  of  the  spirit  of  the  vast  and  lonely  plain.  "  Bearing 
allegiance  to  neither  King  nor  thing,"  as  Azara  writes,  he  followed 
the  fate  of  the  live  stock  of  the  colony  ;  when  the  cattle  escaped 
control  he  too  declared  himself  free,  running  wild  and  beyond 
the  pale  of  even  nominal  domestication.  The  Pampa  was  his 
home,  and  in  his  ears  the  breeze  moving  over  the  plains  whis- 
pered to  him  of  liberty.  To  colonial  rule  succeeded  the  new 
order  of  Independence,  and  the  gaucho,  inured  by  his  style  of 
living  to  the  stress  of  weather  and  to  the  struggle  with  savage 
animals,  became  the  right  hand  of  the  petty  chiefs  of  party 
faction,  ever  joining  the  side  in  conflict  with  the  ruling  power. 
The  words  law  and  order  signified  for  him  oppression  and  servi- 
tude, and  he  became  the  declared  enemy  of  all  authority.  But 
with  all  his  faults  the  gaucho,  in  his  own  element,  mounted  on 
his  beloved  horse,  with  lazo  secured  to  the  back  of  his  saddle  and 
his  boleadora  hanging  from  his  waist,  was  the  henchman  beyond 
price  for  the  work  of  the  old  estancia,  knowing  how  to  dominate 
and  domesticate  the  savage  herds  and  droves  of  wild  mares. 
In  all  that  he  has  seemingly  been  modified  by  the  progress  of 
the  times,  he  has  remained  unmodified  in  his  spirit  which  is  the 
essential  manifestation  of  his  climate  and  of  his  habit.  The 
nomad  gaucho  of  the  colonial  period  converted  into  the  loyal 

^  Monograph  attached  to  Argentine  Agricultural  and  Live  Stock 
Census,  1908. 


172    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

gaucho  of  the  estancia,  the  man  with  no  other  belongings  than 
his  horses  and  the  silver  clasp  and  buttons  hanging  at  his  belt 
to  whom  the  breeder  entrusted  all  his  herds,  and  the  grazier 
the  money  wherewith  to  buy  the  droves  of  bullocks,  without  for 
one  moment  thinking,  either  the  one  or  the  other,  that  he  would 
neglect  his  charges  or  fail  to  render  account  to  the  uttermost 
farthing  committed  to  his  care.  Alike  loyal  and  venturesome  in 
the  fulfilment  of  his  duties,  and  kindly  and  hospitable  in  his 
lowly  home  life,  he  is  the  hero  of  the  rural  romance  of  the  Pampa. 
Not  without  regret  and  tender  reminiscences  must  we  take  fare- 
well of  a  period  of  pastoral  life,  from  whose  remembrance  all  the 
hardships  and  bitterness  have  disappeared,  only  leaving  to  us 
the  recollection  of  that  patriarchal  and  wholesome  life  which  the 
late  Hernandez  has  so  skilfully  depicted  in  the  picturesque 
language  of  the  gaucho  who  tells  his  story  by  the  fitful  hght  of 
the  fire  on  the  kitchen  hearth  while  his  fingers  caress  the  melan- 
choly strings  of  the  guitar. 

And  now  approaches  the  new  era  of  railways,  of  fenced-in 
paddocks,  of  ingenious  drafting  gates  and  all  the  mechanical 
entourage  of  the  modern  pastoral  industry.  The  gaucho,  like 
Othello,  is  without  an  occupation,  but  the  spirit  which  in  divers 
forms  and  epochs  has  characterized  him  shall  not  die.  It  is  the 
native  spirit  of  the  Argentine  genius  which  enters  the  immigrant 
ere  for  long  he  has  settled  in  the  land  and  which  inspires  the  sons 
born  to  him  in  this  country  ;  it  is  the  instinct  of  independence 
and  individuality  engendered  by  the  free  air  of  a  rural  life,  and 
which  is  the  antithesis  of  the  dependent  spirit  symbohzed  in  city 
life  by  socialism. 

Salta  is  a  large,  sparsely  populated  Province,  the  in- 
habitants of  which  outside  the  circle  of  its  aristocratic 
families,  are  composed  of  our  friend  the  Gaucho  and  his 
families  and  the  Coya  Indians.  These  last,  cowboys  and 
shepherds,  are  much  more  unpleasant  people;  morose, 
avaricious  in  their  necessarily  small  way,  and  full  of  sullen 
duplicity.  Their  only  obvious  virtue  is  their  devoted 
attachment  to  the  small  allotments  of  land  they  can  call 
their  own.  This  solitary  virtue  does  not,  however,  make 
them  any  the  pleasanter  to  strangers  ;  all  of  whom  in- 
discriminately they  regard   as  possible  enemies  come  to 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       173 

rob  them  of  their  rights  in  some  mysterious  way  or 
other. 

Naturally,  with  such  a  population  and  on  account  of  its 
distance  from  the  great  commercial  centres  of  the  Republic, 
Salta  is  not  yet  very  far  on  the  road  to  any  great  or  settled 
prosperity. 

It  has  some  sugar  plantations,  cultivates  some  tobacco 
and  makes  some  wine,  but  with  its  many  generally  well- 
watered  and  easily  irrigable  large  areas  of  rich  soil  it  could 
easily,  and  of  course  eventually  will,  progress. 

It  could  grow  a  great  deal  more  maize  and  alfalfa  than  it 
does,  and  could  carry  much  more  and  better  live  stock  than 
it  yet  troubles  to  do. 

It  produces  some  fruit  and  could  produce  all  sorts  of 
much  choicer  kinds  in  great  variety  ;  also  potatoes,  cotton 
and,  as  experts  affirm,  excellent  coffee. 

Of  course  there  are  here  the  old  difficulties  of  irrigation, 
in  some  places,  cost  of  transport  and  lack  of  intelligent 
labour.  The  first  two  are  rapidly  being  overcome  by  the 
National  Government,  the  last  must  be  looked  for  over- 
seas. The  Gaucho  and  the  Coy  a  not  only  are  not  suffi- 
ciently numerous  for  Salta's  future  needs,  but  (alas  for  the 
romance  of  the  former  !)  they  must  be  classed  amongst 
the  doomed  unfit ;  to  be  merged  in  or  overwhelmed  by  the 
march  of  modernity. 

The  aspect  of  Salta,  like  that  of  most  of  the  northern 
Provinces  and  Territories,  is  varied.  Mountain  and  low 
valley,  broad  plain  and  forest,  deep  river  and  rushing 
stream  all  alternate  and  give  picturesqueness  and  diversity 
of  climate.  Goats,  mules  and  sufficient  horses  for  existing 
local  needs  are  to  be  found  here  as  in  the  neighbouring 
Provinces  ;  all  of  which  are  justly  famous  for  products,  the 
mention  of  which  must  on  no  account  be  overlooked,  the 
native  cloths  and  ponchos,  hand- woven  of  vicuna  and  guanaco 
wool.  Soft,  warm  and  durable,  these  cloths  are  highly  and 
justly  valued  in  the  more  civilized  regions  of  the  River  Plate. 


174    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

The  manufacture  of  them  dates  from  times  which  are 
prehistoric  in  America. 

The  forests  of  Salta  contain  a  great  quantity  of  Que- 
bracho of  excellent  quality,  and  there  are  several  indigenous 
creepers  of  caoutchouc-bearing  kinds.  This  latter  has 
as  yet  been  little  exploited,  and  then  only  in  an  extremely 
primitive  manner. 

Salta  boasts  a  large  hydropathic  establishment  in  con- 
nection with  the  hot  mineral  springs  of  Rosario  de  la 
Frontera, 

Salta,  the  Capital,  is  another  of  the  old  Colonial  cities, 
amid  the  low  houses  of  which  fine  new  public  buildings 
occur  incongruously  ;  iconoclastic.  It  has  also  a  zoological 
garden  which,  wisely,  contains  many  interesting  specimens 
of  local  fauna,  fine,  luxuriantly  planted  public  gardens  and 
Plazas  and  an  excellent  Police  Band. 

In  the  oligarchic  days  of  only  a  very  few  years  ago  the 
police  forces  of  these  outlying  Provinces  were  extremely 
important  political  instruments.  Under  the  Constitution 
the  Provinces  cannot  raise  or  maintain  independent  soldiery  ; 
but  who  could  say  them  nay  if  the  exigencies  of  an  un- 
cultured population  necessitated  a  large  police  force  armed 
with  Mausers  ? — to  ensure  due  obedience  to  the  orders  of 
and  agreement  with  the  policy  of  the  Provincial  powers  that 
were. 

There  are  few  commercial  centres  in  Salta  having  popu- 
lations sufficient  to  give  them  importance  as  towns.  Metan 
is  the  largest,  and  after  it  come  Cafayate,  Campo  Santo  and 
Rosario  de  la  Frontera,  which,  as  has  been  said,  is  noted 
for  its  hot  springs. 

MENDOZA 

This  is  one  of  the  richer  Provinces  on  account  of  its 
vines  and  the  large  wine-making  industry.  Similarly  with 
Tucuman  and  Sugar,  one  may  say  that  Mendoza  and  Wine 
are  in  Argentina  practically  synonymous  ;  this  observation 


^WS^Wi 


''^ 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       175 

also  applies  to  its  neighbour,  San  Juan,  the  second  great 
wine-producing  Province.  Indeed  it  is  quite  common — 
very  common  indeed,  in  fact — to  say  of  a  person  who 
shows  signs  of  being  under  alcoholic  influence  that  he  is 
"  Entre  San  Juan  y  Mendoza  "  (between  San  Juan  and 
Mendoza). 

Besides  those  of  its  vines,  the  greatest  agricultural  pro- 
ducts of  Mendoza  are  alfalfa,  grown  over  very  considerable 
areas  of  salt-impregnated  soil,  and  a  much  smaller  pro- 
portion of  maize. 

The  population  of  Mendoza  is  small  and  the  number  of 
its  live  stock  very  little  larger  :  although  in  point  of  super- 
ficial area  Mendoza  ranks  third  (after  Buenos  Aires  and 
Cordoba)  among  the  Argentine  Provinces.  It  is  only  fair, 
however,  to  add  that  much  of  the  Western  Area  of  Mendoza 
is  very  mountainous,  since  it  includes  a  long  stretch  of  the 
Eastern  side  of  the  Andes. 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  that  of  San 
Juan,  on  the  West  by  Chile,  on  the  South  by  the  National 
Territories  of  Neuquen  and  the  Pampa  Central,  and  on  the 
East  by  the  Province  of  San  Luis. 

Its  department  of  San  Rafael  is  a  very  large  one,  larger 
indeed  than  the  whole  of  the  rest  of  the  Province  put 
together  ;  in  it  is  found  the  greatest  agricultural  activity, 
including  the  great  alfalfa  fields.  The  Mendoza  cattle  are 
of  all  kinds  and  varieties,  little  attention  having  been  yet, 
generally,  given  to  the  science  of  cross-breeding.  It,  how- 
ever, exports  numbers  of  cattle  to  Chile,  either  by  way  of 
mountain  passes  or  the  Transandine  Railway  ;  but  a  great 
many  of  these  have  been  bred  in  neighbouring  Provinces 
and  sent  to  Mendoza  for  a  fattening  period  before  ex- 
portation. 

Irrigation  is  a  great  feature  of  Mendoza,  which  was  the 
first  Province  to  receive  any  notable  attention  in  this  regard. 
Now,  if  we  except,  perhaps,  the  great  irrigation  works  and 
schemes  already  well  advanced  in  the  National  Territories 


176    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  Neuquen  and  the  Rio  Negro,  Mendoza  has,  with  San  Juan, 
the  largest  and  most  comprehensive  systems  (both  existing 
and  in  advanced  stages  of  consideration)  in  the  whole 
Republic. 

The  fall  of  the  mountain  rivers  and  the  eastward  drop  of 
the  whole  surface  of  the  Province  makes  irrigation  here  a 
comparatively  easy  task,  while  the  natural  fertility  of  the 
soil  quickly  and  richly  repays  the  initial  cost  and  upkeep  of 
reservoirs  and  canals.  One  menace  there  is  which  hangs 
ever  over  Mendoza,  that  of  volcanic  eruptions.  The  whole 
of  its  Capital  was  completely  destroyed  as  recently  as  1861. 
The  city  has,  however,  been  rebuilt  on  its  former  site,  a  sort 
of  shelf  of  land  situated  on  the  spring  of  the  great  Andine 
range.  Gradually  the  loosely  built  low  adobe  houses  have 
been  and  are  still  being  replaced  in  the  New  Town  by 
several-storied  buildings  of  solid  masonry  ;  courage  growing 
as  the  date  of  the  last  great  earthquake  grows  more  remote. 
Still  slight  shocks  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  Capital 
and  elsewhere  in  this  Province. 

The  City  of  Mendoza  is  rich  in  public  gardens  and  avenues 
filled  with  luxuriantly  umbrageous  vegetation  and  has,  of 
course  (what  self-respecting  Argentine  town  has  them  not  ?), 
electric  light  and  trams  ;  but  its  just  pride  is  the  great 
West  Park,  situate  on  another  level  shelf  of  land  projecting 
from  the  foot  of  the  Cordillera  on  a  higher  level  than  that 
on  which  the  City  is  built. 

This  Park  has  a  sheet  of  water  of  almost  a  mile  in  length 
by  some  seventy-five  yards  broad,  in  which  are  ornamental 
islets  and  on  which  regattas  are  held.  For  these  festal 
occasions  there  is  a  huge  stone  grand  stand  at  one  end  of 
the  water.  The  Park  has  many  magnificent  electric-lighted 
avenues  lined  with  trees  of  majestic  proportions,  and  all 
over  it  are  gardens  of  subtropical  shrubs  and  plants.  Within 
its  great  brorize  gates  are  also  a  zoological  and  a,  specifically, 
botanical  garden. 

With  all  this,  if  Mendoza  has  drawn  somewhat  on  the 


.;^^:.-:^- 


A   BIT  OF   THE   TRANSANDINE    RAILWAY,    ARGENTINA 


ENJKANCK    lu    Illl-.   MWI.MII     11   .\.\i,l,     Mll:'il  <,ll     Mil      WUKS 
(CHILEAN    SIDE) 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       177 

future  to  foot  the  bill  of  its  many  embellishments,  it  has 
done  no  more  than  many  other  cities  of  the  still  new  South 
American  countries,  and  with  more  immediate  prospect  of 
justification  for  its  expenditure  than  have  several  others. 
What  Mendoza  has  got  to  do  now  is  to  create  an  export 
trade  for  its  wines,  on  the  condition  precedent  that  it 
manufacture  wines  that  will  keep  and  will  improve  with 
keeping.  Otherwise  with  increased  irrigation  it  may  run  the 
risk  of  over-production,  since  the  home  consumption  is  as 
yet  a  limited  one.  The  increase  of  the  population  of  the 
River  Plate  countries  is,  as  we  have  seen,  still  slow,  and 
outside  the  towns  very  little  wine  is  drunk  by  the  majority 
of  the  people  except  on  special  and  rare  occasions  ;  mate 
sufficing  for  their  habits  and  needs, 

Mendoza  sends  large  quantities  of  table-grapes  and  other 
fruit  to  Buenos  Aires,  and  hopes  one  day  to  send  them  over- 
seas. This  latter  consideration  depends  greatly  on  the 
adoption  of  improved  methods  of  picking  and  packing, 
matters  to  which  the  management  of  the  Buenos  Aires 
Pacific  Railway  has  given  much  practical  attention.  Care 
in  such  details  is,  however,  but  little  in  the  Argentine  nature 
generally,  and  even  in  a  less  degree  in  that  of  the  strong 
mixture  of  Indian  blood  which  marks  the  working  classes 
of  Mendoza,  as  it  does  in  all  except  the  littoral  Pro- 
vinces. Very  good  canned  peaches  come  from  the  Mendoza 
factories  and  are  in  large  demand  throughout  the  Republic. 

Coal  and  petroleum  have  both  been  found  in  the  Province, 
but  further  working  tests  are  needed  before  their  probable 
commercial  value  can  be  ascertained. 

From  the  City  of  Mendoza  the  Buenos  Aires  Pacific 
Railway  (famiUarly  B.A.P.)  strikes  upward  to  where  it 
passes  through  the  Transandine  tunnel ;  on  the  Mendoza 
side  of  which  is  the  famous  Puente  del  Inca  (the  Inca's 
bridge),  a  vast  block  of  stone  which,  lying  across  a  ravine, 
makes  a  natural  bridge,  recalling  the  giant-built  palace  of 
the  old  Norse  Gods.    Here  are  also  some  hot  mineral  springs 


178    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

celebrated  for  treatment  of  rheumatism  ;  to  which  treat- 
ment the  dry,  rarefied  mountain  air  perhaps  contributes 
its  less  recognized  quota. 

SAN    JUAN 

This  Province  is  bounded  on  the  North  and  East  by  the 
Province  of  La  Rioja,  on  the  West  by  Chile,  and  on  the  South 
and  South-East  by  the  Provinces  of  Mendoza  and  San  Luis 
respectively. 

Of  all  the  Argentine  Provinces  San  Juan  has  shown  itself, 
until  very  recent  times  indeed,  probably  the  most  recal- 
citrant towards  financial  orderliness.  A  repeated  non 
possumiis  was  the  only  answer  its  inertness  returned  to  the 
many  periodical  fulminations  and  menaces  of  the  National 
Government  in  respect  of  its  treasury  bonds  or  depreciated 
Provincial  paper  money.  So  depreciated,  in  fact,  that  it 
was  worth  nothing  at  all  outside  the  Province  itself,  and  was 
by  no  means  welcome,  although  legal,  tender  within  its 
boundaries. 

San  Juan  pleaded  that  it  could  not  call  this  paper  in 
since  it  had  nothing  with  which  to  replace  it — all  the  little 
National  money  it  got  for  its  wines  and  other  produce  went 
immediately  back  to  Buenos  Aires  again  for  necessary 
purchases. 

The  National  Government  insisted  that  San  Juan  must 
remove  the  disgrace  from  its  financial  escutcheon  or  all  sorts 
of  things  would  happen.  San  Juan  regretted  deeply  and 
asked  for  time.  In  the  meanwhile  it  contrived  to  raise 
another  of  those  loans,  without  much  more  than  a  shadow 
of  adequate  security  or  provision,  which  long  have  been  the 
nightmare  of  the  National  Government,  and  it  still  kept  on 
using  its  depreciated  notes.  So,  and  in  many  other  ways 
for  long,  very  long,  did  San  Juan  wrestle,  successfully 
according  to  its  lights,  with  the  spirit  of  progress  until 
irrigation,  fostered  by  the  National  Government,  came  to 
the  aid  of  the  latter  in  a  way  there  was  no  denying. 


PUENJK   DEL    IXCA:   MENDOZA,   AR(;EN'nNA 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       179 

San  Juan  had  to  become  more  prosperous  and  to  begin 
to  pay  its  way  in  respectable  fashion.  It  evidently  did  not 
in  the  least  want  to  do  so,  but  it  could  not  any  longer  see 
any  way  by  which  it  could  avoid  recognition  of  its  just 
liabilities.  Thus  are  the  good  old  times  of  this  Province 
vanishing ;  the  good  old  times  which  made  sufficient 
provision  for  an  aristocratic  oligarchy  and  in  which  vassals 
had  no  opportunity  of  acquiring  luxurious  tastes. 

First  the  railway,  slow  in  this  case,  however,  in  its  usually 
tonic  effects  and  then  irrigation,  which  poured  water  on 
to  a  naturally  very  fertile  soil,  brought  it  about  that  one 
day  San  Juan  woke  up  to  find  itself  faced  with  financial 
responsibility. 

People  from  the  littoral  and  even  from  overseas  came  and 
bought  land  and  paid  good  prices  in  hard  cash  for  it  and  then 
planted  vines  of  new,  productive  kinds  ;  trimmed  them  in 
new,  productive  ways  ;  and  made  better  wine  out  of  them 
than  San  Juan  had  ever  deemed  at  all  necessary.  Other 
people  planted  wheat  and  alfalfa,  and  even  troubled  to  grow 
more  maize  than  there  had  been  before.  In  fact,  if  ever 
a  Province  had  greatness  thrust  upon  it  in  a  bewilderingly 
short  space  of  time  it  was  San  Juan.  People  are  even 
prospecting  and  actually  exploiting  its  long-latent  mineral 
wealth,  looking  for  and  finding  deposits  of  gold,  silver, 
copper,  iron,  zinc,  lead,  sulphur,  alum,  mica,  rock  salt, 
lignite  and  marble. 

The  exploitation  of  many  of  these  has  not  yet  attained 
any  very  great  commercial  importance,  ^  but  that  of  others 
has  already  done  so,  and  all  the  companies  concerned  have 
brought  money  into  the  Province  and  pay  wages  to  many 
native  workers.  All  this  troublesomeness  tends  to  curtail 
the  daily  siesta,  but  a  consequent  bundle  of  full-value 
national  dollars  operates  as  a  consolation  to  even  the  most 
conscientious   observer  of  traditional   custom.     The  next 

^  This  is  largely  due  to  the  heavy  cost  of  transport  even  from  the  mines 
to  the  railway  head  at  the  City  of  San  Juan. 


180    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

generation  of  San  Juan  inhabitants  will  doubtless  be  as  wide 
awake  as  their  neighbours,  and  strikes  may  take  the  place 
of  old-time  rebellion  to  the  orders  of  patriarchal  over- 
lords; while  the  latter  will  be  put  to  it  to  work  their 
ancestral  lands  intelligently  in  order  to  maintain  the  due 
measure  of  their  proper  dignity. 

Not  only  has  the  National  Government  fostered  large 
systems  of  irrigation  in  and  given  irrigation  to  this  Province, 
but  it  has  also  run  a  railway  connecting  the  City  of  San 
Juan  with  the  Federal  Capital ;  thus  providing  another 
outlet  for  its  grapes,  wines  and  other  produce. 

An  instance  of  the  former  commercial  apathy  of  San 
Juan,  and  of  its  neighbour  Mendoza  for  that  matter,  was, 
not  long  ago,  to  be  found  in  the  manner  in  which  the  growers 
of  table-grapes  allowed  themselves  to  be  continually  and 
methodically  jockeyed  by  the  fruit  ring  of  Buenos  Aires. 

The  worthies  composing  this  ring  were  low-class,  ignorant 
men,  who  could  only  grasp  the  possibilities  of  monopoly 
and  market  rigging  on  a  very  small  scale.  Their  simple 
method  was  to  put  only  a  certain  limited  quantity  of  fruit 
each  week  on  the  retail  markets  of  the  Federal  Capital  and 
to  charge  exorbitant  prices  therefor.  To  the  poor,  three- 
quarter  Indian,  ignorant  people  of  the  islands  of  the  Parana 
they  said  that  Buenos  Aires  did  not  care  much  for  peaches, 
and  so  they  only  went  there  once  a  week  or  so  to  fetch  a 
few,  at  miserable  prices,  for  market.  The  rest  of  huge 
crops  were  left  to  rot  on  the  trees.  San  Juan  (and  Mendoza) 
were  evidently  given  to  understand  that  a  similar  situation 
existed  in  regard  to  grapes. 

How  this  could  have  been  so  is  hard  to  understand, 
except  on  the  ground  of  extreme  apathy  on  the  part  of  the 
Provinces  concerned,  for  lots  of  vineyard  owners  live  at 
least  half  the  year  in  Buenos  Aires,  and  could  have  told  of 
the  scarcity  and  high  price  of  fruit  in  that  city. 

However  this  may  have  been,  the  fact  remained  that  so 
many  kilos  of  table-grapes,  and  no  more,  went  down  to 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       181 

Buenos  Aires  in  specially  constructed  trucks  placed  on  the 
B.A.P.  trains  three  days  per  week.  Until  the  General 
Manager,  Mr.  J.  A.  Goudge,  decided  to  act  in  the  better 
interests  of  the  Provinces  concerned  and,  incidentally,  also 
in  those  of  his  company,  by  running  grape  trains  six  days 
a  week. 

He  thought,  perhaps,  that  the  Buenos  Aires  fruit  mer- 
chants would  call  at  his  offices  with  illuminated  testimonials. 
If  he  did  so  he  was  entirely  mistaken.  They  did  call,  but 
it  was  to  curse  not  bless.  He  would  ruin  them  all,  they  said  ; 
they  had  comfortably  arranged  for  such  and  such  supplies 
of  grapes,  but  more  would  upset  their  plans  and  businesses 
completely  1  They  left  Mr.  Goudge  unconvinced.  So  much 
so,  indeed,  that  considering  the  menace  of  the  ring  to  boy- 
cott his  new  trains,  he  hit  on  the  simple  but  adequate 
expedient  of  running  three  grape  trains  per  week  from  San 
Juan,  non-stopping  at  Mendoza,  and  three  starting  from  the 
latter  place.  San  Juan  needed  its  three  trains,  so  did  Men- 
doza, and  therefore  no  one  could  boycott  either  service. 
Result,  the  arrival  at  Buenos  Aires  of  six  grape  trains 
per  week.  The  ring  soon  accommodated  itself  to  the 
extra  supply  and  went  on  robbing  the  busy,  light-hearted 
Portefios  (as  people  born  in  Buenos  Aires  are  called)  till  the 
continued  efforts  of  a  paternally  wise  Municipality  at  last, 
after  a  long  and  bitter  struggle,  crushed  the  power  of  all  the 
food  rings  in  that  formerly  ring-ridden  city. 

This  little  piece  of  economic  history  is  here  intended  to 
show  the  depths  of  somnolence  and  blindness  to  their  own 
interests  in  which  the  grape  growers  of  San  Juan  and  Men- 
doza reposed  till,  so  to  speak,  only  the  other  day. 

San  Juan  is  capable  of  producing  good  quality  cotton 
and  tobacco.  Its  general  chmate  is  warm,  hot  in  summer, 
and  in  parts  very  dry  ;  though  the  humidity  of  the  soil 
and  atmosphere  of  the  chief  vine  areas  are  greater  than  in 
those  of  Mendoza.  Hence  the  relative  general  superiority 
and  freedom  from  insect  pests  of  the  Mendoza  vineyards. 


182    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

The  city  of  San  Juan  is  Colonial  in  almost  all  its  aspects, 
and  its  public  and  private  gardens,  filled  with  mingled 
tropical  and  temperate  zone  trees,  shrubs  and  flowers, 
exhale  the  lazy  atmosphere  of  days  the  memory  of  which 
is  so  constantly  recurrent  in  all  distant  Argentine  towns. 
Sleepy  hollow ;  maybe,  but  its  charm  !  A  charm  which  will 
not  nor  can  ever  be  "  reconstructed,"  try  all  those  of  us  who 
are  afflicted  with  unhappy  artistic  temperaments,  never  so 
hard.  But  that  charm  is  still  in  San  Juan,  in  Misiones  (the 
one-time  "Jesuit  Empire"),  Salta  and  Jujuy  ;  in  spite  of 
new  Government  and  Municipal  Buildings,  electric  Hght 
and  trams. 

Later,  we  will  go  to  the  Falls  of  Iguazu,  greater  and  more 
magnificent  than  Niagara  or  the  Victoria  Falls.  These 
wonderful  Falls  are  in  the  great  up-to-date,  go-ahead 
Argentine  Repubhc.  What  proportion  of  our  "  Man-in-the- 
street  "  has  ever  heard  of  them  ?  And  how  many  good 
intelligent  inhabitants  of  Buenos  Aires  have  any  clear  idea 
of  what  they  are  really  like  ? 


NATIONAL  TERRITORIES 

THE   PAMPA  CENTRAL 

The  name  of  the  Pampa  is  also  redolent  of  romance  ;  of 
memories  of  vast  herds  of  wild  cattle  and  horses,  picturesque 
gauchos  and  raiding  Indians  ;  but  the  Pampa  Central  of 
to-day  is  a  great  and  ever-growing  cereal  area,  soon,  no 
doubt,  to  become  in  its  own  right  the  fifteenth  Province 
of  the  Republic.  A  Province  probably  destined  to  outstrip 
rapidly  many  of  Its  older  compeers  in  the  race  for  wealth 
and  very  modern  in  its  utilitarian  progressiveness. 

Its  superficial  area  is  approximately  equal  to  that  of 
Mendoza,  and  though  as  yet  it  lacks  population,  that  will 
come  to  it  sooner  than  to  many  other  parts  of  the  Republic, 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       183 

since  it  already  grows  much  more  than  double  as  much 
wheat  as  all  the  rest  of  the  Republic  put  together,  after 
exception  made  of  the  Provinces  of  Buenos  Aires,  Santa  F^ 
and  C6rdoba,  and  more  than  double  as  much  linseed  after 
exception  made  of  the  Provinces  of  Buenos  Aires,  Santa  F^, 
C6rdoba  and  Entre  Rios.  It  also  produces  more  maize  than 
any  Province  or  other  Territory  with  the  exception  of  the 
last-mentioned  four. 

Its  development  has  been  the  most  rapid  of  any  part  of 
quick-moving  Argentina.  No  just  comparison  of  progress 
can  be  made  with  Uruguay  ;  the  conditions  under  which 
the  latter  country  has  until  so  recently  struggled  having 
been  adverse  to  rapidity  of  material  development,  whereas 
the  Pampa  Central  was  freed  from  its  only,  though  great, 
disturbing  element,  nomadic  hordes  of  native  Indians,  as 
long  ago  as  1884. 

This  Territory  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Provinces 
of  Mendoza,  San  Luis  and  Cordoba,  on  the  West  by  Mendoza 
and  the  National  Territory  of  Neuquen,  on  the  South  by 
the  National  Territory  of  Rio  Negro,  and  on  the  East  by 
the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires. 

Some  parts  of  the  Pampa  Central  are  hilly  and  wooded 
and,  as  in  some  parts  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  ever- 
moving  sand-hills  vary  the  monotony  of  other  portions  of 
its  surface,  but  the  greater  part  of  it  is  the  continuation  of 
a  vast  plain,  begun  in  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  the 
Pampa  of  the  Indians,  from  which  it  takes  its  name.  It  is, 
in  fact,  the  Central  Pampa  ;  the  Eastern  being  in  the 
Province  of  Buenos  Aires  and  the  Southern  extending  into 
Patagonia. 

Though  the  Pampa  Central  boasts  only  two  great  rivers, 
the  Rio  Colorado  and  the  Rio  Negro,  the  latter  of  which 
forms  its  southern  boundary,  it  has  many  both  fresh-water 
and  saline  lakes,  and  water  is  seldom  to  seek  far  from  its 
surface. 

The  chief   products   of  the   Pampa   Central   are   wheat. 


184    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

linseed,  maize  and  oats,  but  with  the  growth  of  its  alfalfa 
fields  and  the  planting  of  good  grasses  in  lieu  of  the  native 
hard  pasturage,  it  has  also  become  a  great  centre  of  the  Live 
Stock  fattening  industry,  especially  during  the  winter  months 

The  sandy,  salty  soil  of  much  of  this  territory,  with  water 
near  the  surface,  provides,  as  has  been  said  of  similar  tracts 
elsewhere,  just  the  conditions  most  favourable  to  lucerne  ; 
while  in  other  parts  the  soil  is  extremely  rich  in  humus. 

Three  of  the  great  railway  systems  serve  the  Pampa 
Central ;  viz.  the  Buenos  Aires  Western,  the  Buenos  Aires 
Pacific,  and  the  Buenos  Aires  Great  Southern,  carrying  its 
produce  to  the  ports  of  both  Buenos  Aires  and  Bahia  Blanca. 

Santa  Rosa  de  Toay  is  the  Capital  of  this  Territory  ;  a 
purely  commercial  town  which  by  its  rapidly  grown  im- 
portance supplanted  the  old  Capital,  General  Acha. 

The  Pampa  Central  has  also  numerous  other  active 
centres  of  the  cereal  trade  and  general  commerce. 

On  the  question  of  its  becoming  a  Province  of  the  Republic 
there  is  considerable  local  difference  of  opinion  ;  a  good 
many  of  its  business  men  holding  that  honour  dear  at  the 
price  of  having  to  maintain  a  Provincial  Congress  and  various 
Ministries  and  the  rest  of  the  appanages  of  autonomy.  In 
this  they  are  right.  Direct  National  Government  is  cer- 
tainly the  cheapest  and  it  is  also  very  far  from  being  the 
worst. 

The  Pampa  Central  now  exports  large  quantities  of  high- 
class  wool  and  hides.  It  also  has  some  copper  mines,  the 
present  output  of  which,  however,  is  not  of  great  importance. 

This  territory  would  already,  no  doubt,  have  been  much 
more  populous  than  it  is  had  it  not  been  the  scene  of  one 
of  the  most  glaring  of  the  labour-exploiting  scandals  referred 
to  elsewhere  in  these  pages. 

Here  the  cases  were  sufficiently  numerous  and  contem- 
poraneous to  render  a  menace  of  serious  disturbance  possible 
to  and  partially  effective  by  people  who  had  been  cajoled 
into  developing  virgin  land  only  to  be  threatened  with 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       185 

expulsion  (as  soon  as  that  work  had  been  done  and  before 
they  had  been  able  to  derive  any  profit  from  it)  by  owners 
who  only  revealed  their  existence  at  what  seemed  to  them 
the  propitious  moment  for  their  appearance  on  the  scene 
of  other  people's  labours.  Compromises  were  arrived  at 
by  which  the  farmers  consented  to  pay  rent  for  their  hold- 
ings, but  the  scandal  undoubtedly  kept  many  others  away 
from  the  Territory,  and  even  now  an  evil  result  of  it  con- 
tinues in  the  shape  of  almost  every  tenant  being  obviously 
only  anxious  to  get  the  most  he  can  out  of  the  land  while 
it  is  his  to  work.  Few  tenant  farmers  in  the  Pampa  spend 
much  money  in  buildings  or  other  improvements. 

The  Pampa  Central  is  a  crying  case  for  the  adoption  and 
insistence  by  the  National  Government  on  the  real  practical 
working  out  of  a  true  colonization  policy.  A  policy  by 
which  the  small  farmer  could  obtain  the  indisputable  free- 
hold of  land  which  he  develops  and  on  which  he  lives,  be  he 
Argentine  or  foreigner. 

In  all  else  the  foreigner  actually  enjoys  under  the  Constitu- 
tion the  same  privileges  (except  eligibility  for  high  Govern- 
ment ofhce,  etc.)  as  a  born  Argentine.  But  land  !  It  must  go 
hard  with  an  Argentine  ere  he  part  with  his  ultimate  rights 
in  that.  Yet,  I  repeat,  he  must  make  up  his  mind  to  do  so 
on  a  large  scale  or  he  will  find  his  whole  progress  arrested 
as  surely  as  if  the  Antarctic  zone  had  suddenly  extended  its 
icy  influence  over  half  of  his  Republic.  If  he  will  not  give 
them  land  the  class  of  colonist  he  most  needs — the  real 
settler — will  continue  to  give  the  country  a  wide  berth  and 
its  output  must  remain  stationary  at  the  point  at  which  it 
fully  occupies  all  available  labour. 

NEUQUEN 

This  is  one  of  the  least  generally  known  parts  of  Argen- 
tina. Misioncs  figures  in  the  history  of  the  Spanish  Con- 
quest and  that  of  the  Jesuit  Missionaries,  *  from  which  it 

*  The  Jesuits  also  had  settlements  in  Neuquen. 


186    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

takes  its  present  name  ;  the  Territory  of  the  Rio  Negro  has 
of  late  years  become  prominent  by  reason  of  great  schemes 
of  irrigation  (these,  however,  also  affect  the  Eastern  portions 
of  Neuquen)  j  Chubut  came  into  notice  in  connection  with 
the  not  over-successful  establishment  of  a  Welsh  colony  ; 
the  Chaco  is  vaguely  associated  in  the  general  mind  with 
Indian  Reservations  and  occasional  real  or  reported  dis- 
turbances caused  by  the  aborigines  confined  therein  ;  but 
the  Territories  of  Santa  Cruz,  Formosa,  Los  Andes  and 
Neuquen  are  still  little  more  than  geographical  expressions 
to  even  the  vast  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  rest  of 
the  Republic. 

A  principal  cause  of  this  is  that  most  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Neuquen  are  to  be  found  on  the  Western  and  most 
distant  side  of  it  (in  which  the  most  fertile,  and  almost  the 
only  really  fertile  parts  of  it,  until  irrigation  is  an  accomplished 
fact,  are  situated)  and  because  they  not  only  do  all  their 
trading  with  Chile,  but,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  are 
Chileans. 

It  is  quicker  and  easier  to  get  backward  and  forward 
through  well-known  Andine  passes  between  Neuquen  and 
Chile  than  to  accomplish  the  journey  between  the  rail- 
head at  Senillosa,  a  little  to  the  West  of  the  township  of 
Neuquen,  and  the  productive  and  well-watered  Andine 
valleys.  The  Buenos  Aires  Great  Southern  Railway,  which 
serves  this  Territory,  now,  however,  has  under  construction 
an  extension  of  the  Neuquen  line  to  far  up  the  Andes  ; 
from  whence  it  is  intended  to  connect  with  the  Chilean 
Railway  system. 

Therefore  the  richest  parts  of  Neuquen  are  as  yet  prac- 
tically Chilean  colonies  ;  from  which  cattle  and  agricultural 
produce  find  their  way,  some  paying  and  much  contriving 
to  escape  payment  of  duty  to  the  neighbouring  Republic, 
which  in  return  sends  such  manufactured  articles  as  the 
colonist's  somewhat  humble  needs  demand. 

This  Territory  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  Province 


VIKWS  ON   LAKE   XAHUKI, 


lUAI'l,  AKi;K\TI\K   XATIONAl.    rKRKH(»RV 
OF   NKUCJUKN 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       187 

of  Mendoza,  on  the  West  by  Chile,  on  the  South  by  the 
Territory  of  the  Rio  Negro,  and  on  the  East  by  the  Territory 
of  the  Pampa  Central. 

Neuquen,  though  Argentina  at  large  knows  little  of  it, 
grows  more  wheat  than  any  other  National  Territory,  except 
the  Pampa  Central,  and  more  alfalfa  than  any  except  the 
last  named  and  the  Territory  of  the  Rio  Negro.  It  also 
sends  small  quantities  of  potatoes  and  other  table  vegetables 
to  Chile.  Its  chief  exports  to  that  country  consist  of  cattle 
and  sheep  on  the  hoof. 

The  whole  of  the  Andine  side  of  Neuquen  is  extremely 
picturesque,  and  abounds  in  fertile  valleys  well  watered  by 
mountain  streams.  These  streams,  after  their  arrival  at 
the  foot  of  the  Andine  range,  form  a  network  of  ultimate 
tributaries  of  the  great  rivers  Colorado  and  Negro  ;  after 
having  formed  a  whole  system  of  lakes  of  which  Nahuel 
Huapl  is  the  largest.  The  scenery  of  this  lake,  with  the 
great  snow-covered  volcanic  mountain  Tronador  (the 
Thunderer)  on  its  Southern  end,  is  Scandinavian  in  its  tree- 
clad  magnificence.  The  superficial  area  of  this  lake  is  some 
1000  square  miles  and  its  depth  in  some  parts  is  over  700  feet. 

On  one  of  its  islands,  Victoria,  the  enormously  wealthy 
Argentine  family  of  Anchorena  have  founded  a  colony  to 
work  its  wealth  of  virgin  timber,  on  a  99  years'  lease  from 
the  National  Government. 

A  number  of  small  steam  and  sailing  boats  ply  on  this 
lake,  gathering  the  wood,  hides  and  other  produce  of  the 
farms  on  its  borders  and  bringing  to  the  farmers  their 
necessary  supplies. 

Neuquen  is  credited  with  alluvial  goldfields  and  has  some 
copper.  Its  mineral  wealth  is  as  yet,  however,  really  un- 
ascertained ;  the  prospecting  and  tentative  exploitation  of 
it  having  been  up  to  the  present  only  done  by  syndicates 
or  small  companies  whose  resources  have  been  too  limited 
for  the  tasks  they  have  set  themselves  in,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  transport,  such  inaccessible  regions. 


188    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

The  Western  and  South- Western  parts  of  this  Territory 
are  rich  in  timber,  and  its  Eastern  plains  should,  with 
irrigation,  repeat  the  prosperous  history  of  the  Pampa 
Central. 

It  has  many  hot  and  other  mineral  springs,  the  medicinal 
and  other  virtues  of  which  are  already  known  in  Chile  ; 
from  which  country  they  attract  many  sufferers  from 
rheumatism  and  stomachic  and  other  ailments. 

In  dealing  with  all  the  yet  little  known  outlying  parts  of 
the  vast  Argentine  Republic  one  is  apt  to  become  weari- 
somely tautological  in  one's  endeavours  to  give  some  true 
idea  of  their  enormous  latent  natural  wealth.  Yet  if  one 
set  out,  ever  so  modestly,  to  bring  some  conception  of 
them  home  to  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  one  must  tell  the 
truth  even  at  the  risk  of  reiteration.  And  the  truth  is  that 
for  the  future  wealth  of  all  these  regions  there  is  only  one 
word.  Incalculable. 

The  Territories  of  Neuquen  and  the  Rio  Negro  will  soon 
have  irrigation  on  a  vast  scale  and  of  most  modern  design. 
This  work  is  being  carried  out  for  the  National  Government 
by  the  Buenos  Aires  Great  Southern  Railway  Company 
and  is  already  far  advanced. 

The  virgin  soil  of  the  plains  of  these  Territories  is  almost 
incredibly  rich  in  humus  and  alluvial  deposit ;  and  they  have 
a  wealthy  Railway  Company  ready  to  afford  all  necessary 
means  of  transport  to  deep-water  ports  which  nature  has 
already  provided  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean  at,  comparatively, 
no  great  distance  from  any  of,  and  in  many  instances  close 
to,  what  will  be  their  chief  centres  of  agricultural  production 
(in  the  widest  sense  of  that  term). 

RIO   NEGRO 

The  most  important  of  the  general  observations  applicable 
to  this  Territory  have  already  been  made  immediately 
above  ;  remains  in  their  connection  only  to  be  said  that  the 


J 


^  o 


-  z 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       189 

Northern  side  of  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Negro  itself  contains 
some  of  the  naturally  richest  soil  to  be  found  anywhere  in 
the  Republic.  Anyone  armed  with  a  watering-pot  can  grow 
any  temperate-zone  crop,  fruit  or  plant  and  be  astounded 
by  the  brobdingnagian  proportions  of  its  yield,  accomplished 
in  a  space  of  time  suggestive  of  Jack's  Beanstalk. 

And  this  anywhere  in  the  midst  of  what  now  is  an  arid 
desert,  on  which  the  only  vegetation  is  sparse,  stunted, 
scrubby,  useless  bush. 

The  reasons  for  this  are  that  these  eastern  regions  of  the 
South  have  practically  no  rainfall  at  ail  and  that  all  the  water 
running  from  the  Andes  to  the  Sea  has  already  found  its 
way,  farther  west,  into  one  or  other  of  the  great  Rivers 
Colorado  and  Negro. 

The  huge  irrigation  scheme  now  being  carried  out  will 
utilize  an  enormous  natural  hollow  formerly  known  as  the 
CuENCA  ViDAL,  now  rechristeued  Lago  Pellegrini  (after  a 
once  prominent  Argentine  statesman)  as  a  natural  storage 
reservoir.  The  surplus  water  from  the  lake  and  river  system, 
which  makes  a  network  over  the  whole  of  the  western  part 
of  the  territories  of  Neuquen  and  the  Rio  Negro,  at  the  base 
of  the  Andes,  will  be  utilized  for  the  irrigation  of  their 
eastern  plains.  This  system  is  also  destined  to  serve  another 
necessary  purpose  :  namely,  to  regulate  the  flow  of  the  Rio 
Negro. 

This  is  very  necessary  indeed  ;  for  this  river,  swollen  by 
the  melting  of  Andinc  snow  and  ice,  which  has  in  some 
years  taken  place  in  an  exceptional  degree,  comes  down 
suddenly  with  overpowering  violence,  headed  by  what  is  like 
a  huge  tidal  wave,  and  sweeps  everything  within  miles  of 
its  normal,  deep-cut,  banks  before  it. 

Several  times  during  the  past  fifty  years  have  settlers 
been  tempted  by  the  rich  alluvial  soil,  brought  down  by 
centuries  of  just  such  floodings,  to  establish  themselves 
near  enough  to  the  actual  river  to  irrigate  by  some  one  or 
other  rough  lift  system,  and  remained  there  year  in  year 


190    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

out,  in  the  false  security  enjoyed  by  peasants  on  the  slopes 
of  a  volcano,  till  one  day  a  thunderous  roar  has  been  the 
only  warning  of  the  immediate  approach  of  a  torrential 
flood.  Lucky  the  man  who  could  catch  and  mount  his 
horse  in  time  to  gallop  away  and  thus  save  his  life.  All 
the  rest,  cattle,  house  and  crops,  were  swept  away  in  a 
second  by  the  great  head  wave  and  following  floods  of  the 
river  suddenly  swollen  by  the  simultaneous  overflowing  of 
its  innumerable  tributary  lakes. 

Now  all  this  will  be  guarded  against,  and,  incidentally, 
the  Rio  Negro  may  be  rendered  really  navigable  for  a  very 
considerable  distance  by  other  engineering  works  for  the 
removal  and  control  of  its  bar. 

However,  and  when,  this  last  may  be,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  about  the  magic  change  that  the  first  partial  irrigation 
of  these  present  desert  plains  will  quickly  create.  Trees  will 
soon  grow  on  the  irrigated  portions,  and  these  trees  and 
other  vegetation  will  arrest  the  clouds  which  now  fly  on 
unheedingly  to  the  superior  attractions  of  the  Andes  or  the 
southern  hills  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires.  The  very 
southernmost  portion  of  that  Province  is  now  in  the  same 
sad  case  as  the  rest  of  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Negro,  of  which 
it  forms  a  part. 

As  the  result,  smiling  verdure  will  replace  arid  desert ; 
in  a  short  space  of  time,  because  of  the  natural  fertility 
of  the  soil  on  which  the  transformation  will  take  place. 

Already  two  dotted  lines  on  the  railway  map,  one  between 
Bahia  Blanca  and  Carmen  de  Patagones,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Rio  Negro,  and  the  other  branching  from  it  to  San 
Bias,  show  where  the  Buenos  Aires  Pacific  Railway  intends 
to  run  its  first  two  lines  through  the  southernmost  strip  of 
the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires  which  lies  between  the  Rios 
Colorado  and  Negro,  and  other  two  dotted  lines,  one  running 
southwards  from  the  township  of  Rio  Colorado  to  the  bay 
of  San  Antonio,  in  the  San  Matias  Gulf,  and  the  other  from 
the  centre  of  the  first  to  a  junction,  near  Choele  Choel,  with 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       191 

the  main  line  to  Neuquen,  show  the  first  intentions  of  the 
Buenos  Aires  Great  Southern  Hne  towards  that  portion  of 
the  valley  of  the  Rio  Negro  which  falls  within  its  agreed 
sphere  oi  influence. 

In  agreeing  to  a  division  between  them  of  the  productive 
and  prospectively  productive  areas  of  the  southern  parts  of 
the  Republic,  these  two  great  Railway  Companies  not  only 
removed  from  their  own  paths  the  disastrous  temptation 
to  cut  each  other's  throats  by  tariff  war,  but  also  to  a 
considerable  extent  precluded  profitable  competition  by 
outside  enterprise. 

The  National  Government  has  now  a  line  running  from 
the  port  of  San  Antonio  running  East  and  West  right  across 
the  Territory,  The  construction  of  this  line  will  soon  reach 
Lake  Nahuel  Huapi. 

San  Bias  deserves  special  mention  as  the  probable  future 
chief  port  of  the  Rio  Negro  valley.  On  a  long  inlet  of  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  at  the  mouth  of  which  is  a  large  projecting 
island  and  having  deep  water  right  up  to  its  shores,  San  Bias 
has  been  described  by  high  British  authority  to  be  the  finest 
natural  port,  after  Rio  de  Janeiro,  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
both  for  commercial  and  strategic  purposes. 

It  formed  part  of  a  concession  made  many  years  ago  by 
the  National  Government  to  the  late  Mr.  E.  T.  Mulhall, 
the  Editor  and,  with  his  brother,  Mr.  Michael  Mulhall,  the 
eminent  statistician  of  his  time,  joint  founder  of  The  Buenos 
Aires  Standard,  in  recognition  of  services  done  for  the 
development  of  the  Republic  ;  which  in  those  days  of  its 
obscurity  and  distress  was  much  aided  towards  a  better  and 
truer  knowledge  of  its  possibilities  in  Europe  by  the  efforts 
of  what  now  is  the  oldest  established  newspaper  in  America. 
The  Standard  is  printed,  as  it  always  has  been,  in  the  English 
language. 

The  Rio  Negro  Territory  already  grows  a  good  deal  of 
wheat  and  oats  and  has  the  largest  area  under  alfalfa  of  any 
National  Territory  except  the  Pampa  Central ;   it  also  has 


192    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

some  vineyards  and  many  European  fruit  trees  grow  in  the 
fertile  valleys  at  the  foot  of  the  Andes. 

The  minerals  of  this  Territory  are  as  yet  an  almost 
unknown  quantity,  except  some  copper  and  salt.  Petro- 
leum has  also  been  found  at  Bariloche,  but  its  commercial 
value  is  not  fully  ascertained. 

The  climate  of  the  Rio  Negro  is  temperate  and,  as  has 
been  indicated,  for  the  most  part  very  dry.  One  disadvan- 
tage to  agriculture  in  the  fiat  parts  of  these  southern  Terri- 
tories is  the  furious  winds  which  frequently  sweep  over  them. 
The  force  of  these  will,  it  is  reasonably  hoped,  be  broken 
by  trees  in  the  days  to  come. 

This  reminds  one  of  the  tragi-comic  history  of  the 
contemplated  exploitation  of  certain  great  salt  marshes 
situate  not  very  distant  from  San  Bias. 

The  brine  from  these  was  to  be,  and  indeed  on  a  great 
inaugural  occasion  was,  run  through  pipes  into  immense 
shallow  basins,  where  it  was  to  He  until  its  moisture  had 
been  evaporated  by  the  sun  and  wind.  Afterwards  the 
salt  was  to  be  shipped  at  the  port  of  San  Bias  to  Buenos 
Aires  or  elsewhere. 

All  seemed  very  well  with  this  plan.  The  brine  was  duly 
accumulated  in  the  drying  basins,  the  sun  shone  fiercely 
on  it — and,  then,  the  wind  blew  and  blew.  So  hard  that  it 
emptied  the  basins  and  distributed  the  brine  they  had 
contained  over  the  rest  of  the  Universe.  Thus  was  a  good 
scheme  brought  to  naught  by  the  miscalculations  of  its 
initiators.  These,  however,  were  wealthy  enough  to  take 
the  matter  in  good  part.  Indeed,  it  was  from  one  of  them 
that  the  present  writer  had  the  story.  Still  there  is  plenty 
of  good  salt  in  the  Territory. 

The  Rio  Negro  has  as  yet  only  townships  of  rough-and- 
ready  architecture,  the  centres  of  its  nascent  commerce. 
Viedma,  its  capital,  is  in  a  fertile  tract  of  land  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Rio  Negro  ;  it  was,  however,  almost  completely 
destroyed  by  a  great  flood  in  1899.     Its  communication 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       193 

with  the  Federal  Capital  is  maintained  by  the  steamers 
which  call  at  Carmen  de  Patagones,  on  the  opposite  bank 
of  the  river,  and  by  ferry  thereto  and  coach  to  the  head  of 
the  above-mentioned  new  line  of  the  Buenos  Aires  Pacific 
Railway  which  already  reaches  half-way  between  it  and 
Bahia  Blanca.  The  completion  of  this  line  will  greatly 
affect  Viedma  for  the  better,  while  the  regulation  of  the 
current  of  the  Rio  Negro  will  protect  it  from  repeated 
destruction  by  flood.  This  Territory  has  a  fair  stock  of 
sheep,  but  few  cattle. 

CHUBUT 

Chubut  has  struck  oil,  literally.  Petroleum  was  dis- 
covered there  only  a  few  years  ago  (1907),  and  since  the  first 
discovery  many  more  wells  have  been  sunk  in  greater  or 
less  proximity  to  the  first  find  in  the  district  of  Comodoro 
Rivadavia,  situate  almost  on  the  southern  boundary  of  this 
Territory  and  on  the  Gulf  of  San  Jorge,  On  this  gulf  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  new  oil-fields  enjoy  an  admirable 
commercial  situation.  Remains  only  to  prove  fully  their 
commercial  value  ;  of  which  the  great  Argentine  Railway 
Companies  are  evidently  not  yet  fully  persuaded  as  far  as 
fuel  for  their  purposes  is  concerned,  since  they  still  use 
imported  coal. 

A  long  continuance  of  this  present  European  war  might, 
however,  give  stimulus  to  experiment  with  Chubut  petro- 
leum, which  evidently  has  some  value,  even  if  it  need  more 
preparation  for  use  than  the  North  American  and  European 
kinds. 

These  oil-fields  were,  as  has  often  been  the  case  in  such 
matters,  discovered  by  accident,  but  the  discovery  was 
made  by  the  National  Hydrological  Department  in  the  course 
of  a  search  for  an  available  water  supply  for  the  then  new 
Comodoro  Rivadavia  port. 

On  these  fields  claims  have  been  allotted  to  Companies 
and  private  individuals  and  a  certain  area  has  been  reserved 
13 


194    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

to  itself  by  the  National  Government.  Most  brilliant 
results  of  tests  of  all  kinds  are  announced,  the  Government 
line  of  railroad  from  the  Rio  Negro  port  of  San  Antonio  to 
Lake  Nahuel  Huapi  "  uses  no  other  "  (fuel)  ;  and  yet,  and 
yet,  Comodoro  Rivadavia  petroleum  is  slow  to  make  history 
in  the  markets  of  the  world.  ^ 

Still,  time  must  be  given  for  proof,  especially  in  Chubut, 
the  general  appearance  of  which  Territory  suggests  that  it 
was  the  last  word  of  creation,  in  one  sense,  after,  of  course, 
utterly  desolate  Tierra  del  Fuego.  It  is  only  about  two 
decades  since  the  Argentine  authorities  themselves  seem 
to  have  grasped  the  idea  that  such  a  place  did  exist  in  their 
dominions.  It  is  only  so  long  ago,  anyhow,  that  the  National 
Government  thought  fit  to  send  the  first  resident  Govern- 
ment officials  to  Chubut  to  look  after  whatever  might  need 
to  be  looked  after  there.  Before  that,  a  small  part  of  it 
was  under  the  absolute  control  of  a  Colony  of  Welsh  people 
who  first  settled  there  in  1856-66.  The  rest  of  it  was,  and 
to  a  great  degree  still  is,  almost  exclusively  inhabited  by 
native  Patagonians. 

The  capital  of  the  Territory,  Rawson,  was  founded  by 
the  Welsh  colonists  at  the  place  of  their  first  landing  on  the 
South  Atlantic  coast.  It  has  twice  been  destroyed  by  the 
flooding  of  the  Chubut  River,  at  the  mouth  of  which  it 
stood  ;  but  it  has  now  been  rebuilt  more  solidly  than  before 
and  on  a  site  rather  more  out  of  harm's  way. 

The  original  Welsh  colonists  seem  to  have  been  a  strangely 
puritanical  and  narrow-minded  set  of  persons  to  find  them- 
selves in  such  an  out-of-the-way  corner  of  the  earth  as 
Chubut  then  was.  So,  however,  it  may  be  observed,  were 
certain  other  persons  who  landed  in  North  America  a  much 
longer  while  ago  from  a  ship  called  the  Mayflower.  Anyhow, 
the  Welsh  built  and  their  descendants  still  maintain  Pro- 

1  The  National  Government  is  now  taking  active  steps  to  put  Riva- 
davia petroleum  on  a  sound  commercial  footing  and  has  recently  issued 
5%  Bonds  to  the  value  of  i|  millions  sterling  for  that  purpose. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       195 

testant  churches  and  a  stern  rehgious  spirit  in  their  town  of 
Rawson,  a  somewhat  bigoted  spirit,  be  it  added,  since  it 
forbade  the  inter-marriage  of  its  flock  with  anyone  not  of 
their  own,  or  at  any  rate  British,  nationahty  ;  nor  would  it, 
until  very  recently,  permit  their  acceptance  of  the  most 
tempting  offer  to  sell  any  part  of  the  land  within  the  colonised 
areas  to  a  "  foreigner,"  Argentine  or  otherwise.  And  this 
last  restriction  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  much  due  to 
foresight  of  a  future  increase  in  land  value  as  to  a  simple 
objection  to  the  admission  of  any  stranger  within  the  fold. 

Time  will  change  this  no  doubt,  and  change  it  as  soon  as 
Chubut  begins  really  to  advance,  but  all  that  time  has  as 
yet  done  for  the  Welsh  colony  appears  to  have  been  to  sap 
the  energy  of  its  forefathers  ;  the  men  who  in  the  face  of 
discouragement  and  deaf  official  ears  turned  to  their  just 
grievances,  struggled  on,  themselves  constructing  irrigation 
canals,  and  changed  disaster  into  comparative  prosperity. 
The  Chubut  "  Welshman  "  of  to-day  seems  as  lazy  as  his 
forebears  were  energetic.  A  fresh  strain  of  blood  is  possibly 
needed  for  his  case. 

The  superficial  area  of  Chubut  is  very  large.  After  the 
Territory  of  Santa  Cruz  (to  which  would  seem  to  have  been 
allotted  all  that  was  left  over  of  the  Republic  except  the 
Argentine  half  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  after  the  Government 
of  the  more  populated  parts  had  been  arranged  for)  it  is  the 
largest  National  Territory  of  Argentina,  and  much  larger 
than  any  Province  except  that  of  Buenos  Aires. 

Its  estimated  population  averages  scarcely  more  than 
one  per  ten  square  miles,  so  that  there  is  plenty  of  elbow 
room  in  Chubut.  With  a  superficial  area  approximately 
equal  to  that  of  Italy,  the  total  estimated  number  of  its 
inhabitants  is  but  31,000. 

However,  no  doubt  there  are  good  times  coming  for 
Chubut  as  elsewhere  in  Argentina,  though,  petroleum  and  its 
general  effects  apart,  there  is  relatively  little  in  Chubut  to 
hasten  their  coming,  except  its  fertile  Andine  valleys. 
Sheep  certainly  thrive  on  its  rough,  scanty  vegetation,  and 


196    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

seem  to  find  just  sufficient  shelter  on  its  wind-swept  plains  ; 
but  Chubut  has  little  rainfall  and  its  available  fresh  waters 
are  few  and  far  between  at  any  practicable  distance  beneath 
the  surface.  It  has  only  one  great  river,  the  Chubut,  from 
which  it  takes  its  name,  and  this  runs  very  shallow  in  the 
summer,  while  many  of  the  lakes  dry  up  altogether.  In  the 
West,  the  Andine  region,  however,  there  is  ample  rainfall, 
and  this  is  as  yet  the  only  really  productive  part. 

Chubut  grows  and  exports  some  alfalfa  and  sends  some 
cattle  to  Chile,  but  its  chief  product  is  wool.  Its  wheat, 
however,  though  still  small  in  quantity,  fetches  very  good 
prices.  A  railway  is  projected  to  run  East  and  West  across 
this  Territory.  It  already  reaches  from  Puerto  Madryn  to 
Gainam,  on  the  River  Chubut,  a  little  west  of  Rawson. 

SANTA  CRUZ 

This  Territory  is  bounded  on  the  North  by  Chubut,  on 
the  West  and  South  by  Chile,  and  on  the  East  by  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

Santa  Cruz  is  not  by  any  means  so  desolate,  on  the  whole, 
as  Chubut.  It  is  the  land  of  the  sheep,  and  its  large,  very 
large,  estancias,  either  on  the  Andine  side  of  it  or  on  the 
banks  of  its  rivers,  mostly  belong  to  British  settlers,  who 
have  brought  their  own  architecture,  orchards  and  gardens 
with  them  to  this  really  out-of-the-way  spot.  Anyone 
weary  of  the  crowded  world  and  its  busy  ways  might  live 
and  die  under  the  shadow  of  the  ever-lessening,  as  one  gets 
south,  heights  of  the  Andine  range,  in  some  snug,  sheltered 
valley  through  which  a  rippling  stream  runs  close  to  where 
he  would  sit  on  a  green  sward  in  the  shade  of  his  own 
orchard. 

This  is  no  fancy  picture.  As  has  been  indicated  elsewhere 
in  these  pages,  nothing  is  so  English,  temperature,  vegeta- 
tion, the  very  breeds  of  sheep  (Romeny  March  largely  pre- 
dominating), in  America  than  some  favoured  spots  in  Santa 
Cruz.  Only  the  climate  is  different  in  being  drier,  the  rain 
mostly  falling  in  blustering  showers. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       197 

There  is,  of  course,  a  contrast  when  one  emerges  from 
among  the  Andine  valleys,  rivers  and  lakes  out  on  to  the  dry, 
wind-swept,  desert-looking  plains.  Still,  even  there  one 
comes  at  times  to  oases,  on  the  banks  of  one  or  other  of  the 
several  considerable  rivers.  Shelter  from  the  furious  winds 
which  seem  to  blow  eternally  over  Patagonia  is  the  one 
necessity  for  man,  beast  and  crops  in  Santa  Cruz.  Transport 
also  is  lacking.  Even  the  railway  which  the  National 
Government  has  partly  constructed  to  run  from  Puerto 
Deseado,  and  for  the  rest  has  under  advanced  consideration, 
is  apparently  to  strike  almost  immediately  Northwards  up 
into  Chubut ;  leaving  Santa  Cruz,  as  it  is  now  ;  almost  a 
world  of  itself  apart,  as  far  at  least  as  communication  with 
the  rest  of  Argentina  is  concerned.  Its  most  fertile  parts, 
like  those  of  all  these  western  and  southern  territories,  are 
much  more  get-at-able  from  Chile  than  from  their  Atlantic 
sides. 

However,  a  cold-storage  establishment  has  been  built  at 
Gallegos,  the  chief  port  and  the  capital  of  this  Territory  ; 
so  that  Santa  Cruz  may  become  a  centre  of  the  frozen  and 
chilled  mutton  industry  instead  of,  as  formerly,  exporting 
only  wool  and  slaughtering  sheep  merely  for  their  fat  and 
skins.  It  is  a  good  sheep  country  in  the  regions  at  all  suit- 
able for  grazing,  since  disease  is  extremely  rare  in,  if  not 
entirely  absent  from,  flocks  reared  in  its  cold  dry  climate. 
In  respect  of  cattle  and  cereals  the  outlook  is  not  so  promis- 
ing. Still,  one  cannot  have  everything  even  in  Argentina. 
And  one  can  grow  wheat,  oats  and  alfalfa,  besides  apples 
and  pears  in  Santa  Cruz. 


TIERRA   DEL   FUEGO 

First  of  all  it  may  be  said  that  there  are  no  active  volcanoes 
in  Tierra  del  Fuego  nor  have  been  within  the  memory  of 
man.  Mr.  Paul  Walle,  in  his  excellent  work,  already 
mentioned,   L' Argentine  telle  qu'elle  est,  suggests  that  its 


198    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

name  may  have  been  given  it  by  early  explorers  who 
observed  burning  on  it  grass  fires  lit  by  the  natives  for  the 
purpose  of  improving  the  growth  of  certain  shrubs  the 
leaves  of  which  they  use  for  food. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  name  "  Fire  Land,"  as  my  friend 
the  Government  official  translator  naively  has  it  in  the 
English  edition  of  the  Monographs  attached  to  the  latest 
Argentine  agricultural  census,  is  anything  but  a  warm  spot ; 
as  certain  demagogues  who  long  troubled  the  industrial 
peace  of  Buenos  Aires  have  shown  that  they  are  well  aware. 

These  people  were  at  one  time  periodically  deported  for 
inciting  to  commit  or  committing  overt  violence  in  con- 
nection with  labour  strikes.  They  were  mostly  anarchists 
of  the  type  which  tyrannical  Governments  all  the  world  over 
persist  in  regarding  as  criminal.  These  men  were  put  on 
board  boats  bound  for  their  native  countries,  the  police  of 
which  were  telegraphically  advised  of  their  departure  and 
intended  destination.  Needless  to  say,  the  anarchists  took 
good  care  to  contrive  to  leave  the  boat  before  she  reached 
what  was  for  them  a  danger  zone.  Usually  they  got  out  at 
Montevideo  and  soon  were  back  again  at  their  old  work  of 
stirring  up  strife  in  Buenos  Aires. 

At  last  the  National  Government  had  enough  of  this  pro- 
cedure and  Congress  passed  a  law  whereby  any  person  having 
been  sentenced  to  deportation  is,  on  being  subsequently 
found  in  the  Republic,  liable  to  a  term  of  penal  servitude  ; 
and  the  fact  that  Tierra  del  Fuego  would  be  the  penal 
settlement  to  which  recalcitrant  anarchists  would  be  sent 
was  duly  and  insistently  made  public.  This  had  a  very 
beneficial  effect  for  the  Government  and  peaceable  citizens 
at  large.  Dangerous  anarchists  thenceforth  ceased  to  return 
to  Argentina  after  deportation.  They  knew,  or  at  least  had 
read  or  heard,  what  the  climate  of  Tierra  del  Fuego  is  ;  and 
that  for  people  like  them,  used  to  fairly  comfortable  living, 
confinement  there  most  likely  meant  burial  there  also. 

Not  quite  half  of  this  charming  island,  over  which  the 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       199 

winds  blow  straight  from  the  South  Pole,  belongs  to  Argen- 
tina and  forms  the  National  Territory  under  discussion. 
The  other  half  of  it  belongs  to  Chile.  Geologically  most  of 
this  island  is  a  prolongation  of  the  Andes,  On  the  Atlantic 
side  of  its  forest-clad  hills  are  sloping  plains,  the  continuation 
of  the  Pampean  formation.  On  these  a  peculiarly  hardy 
breed  of  sheep  graze,  finding  some  shelter  in  valleys  and 
hollows,  and  give  a  wool  which  fetches  a  good  price  in 
European  markets.  Grazing  of  a  rough  kind  does  also  main- 
tain cattle  and  horses  on  the  Northern  parts  of  the  island. 
Fish  and  shell-fish  of  a  multitude  of  kinds  and  good  quality 
abound  on  the  coast  and  afford  material  for  a  profitable 
industry,  as  also  do  the  seal  and  whale  fisheries,  and  penguins 
are  hunted  for  their  oil.  All  these  fisheries  are  supposed  to 
be  under  Government  supervision,  regulated  by  special 
laws  ;  but,  in  fact,  the  practical  difficulties  of  adequate 
supervision  result  in  an  enormous  amount  of  highly  destruc- 
tive poaching. 

The  official  estimate  of  the  total  cultivated  area  of 
Argentine  Tierra  del  Fuego  is  no  hectares,  of  which  90  are 
stated  to  be  planted  with  potatoes  and  other  table  vegetables. 
The  number  of  sheep  is  given  by  the  same  authority  (Sehor 
Emilio  Lahitte,  Director  of  the  Department  of  Rural 
Economy  and  Statistics  in  the  National  Ministry  of  Agri- 
culture) as  over  2,500,000  and  cattle  at  about  15,000. 

The  Roman  Catholic  Silesian  Brothers  have  a  mission, 
schools  and  an  estancia  on  the  island  ;  and  a  Protestant 
clergyman,  the  late  Mr.  Bridges,  during  his  lifetime  did  a 
great  deal  towards  civilizing  and  bettering  the  condition  of 
the  native  Indians  and  also  kept  a  self-supporting  refuge 
home  for  the  victims  of  the  shipwrecks  of  small  craft  which 
are  still  too  numerous  on  this  wild  storm-beaten  coast. 
This  good  work  is  now  being  carried  on  by  his  son,  the  first 
child  of  European  parentage  born  in  Tierra  del  Fuego. 

Ushuaia,  the  Capital,  is  chiefly  notable  for  the  penal  gaol 
above  alluded  to.     Formerly  convicts  were  kept,  but  not 


200    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

often  for  long  before  death  overtook  them,  on  an  island  whic?i 
forms  the  very  southernmost  point  of  South  America.  It  is 
a  terribly  cold,  damp  region  where  rain  falls  on  an  average 
280  days  in  the  year.  On  consideration,  perhaps  it  is  the 
reputation  of  this  place  which  has  so  effectually  damped  the 
ardour  of  deported  anarchists  ;  as  the  Ushuaia  gaol  is  a 
modern  structure,  said  to  be  furnished  with  all  the  latest 
requirements  for  the  well-being  of  prisoners.  Still,  even  it, 
in  Tierra  del  Fuego,  can  provide  but  uncomfortably  cold 
lodging. 

Tierra  del  Fuego  is  not  lonely  for  it  has  many  fishing  ports 
and  all  navigation  must  pass  it  on  the  way  through  the 
Magellan  Straits.  For  all  that,  one  cannot  but  wonder  why 
any  but  prisoners  and  prison  and  other  officials  go  there 
(except,  of  course,  fishermen  and  the  adventurous  spirits 
who  are  ever  hunting  in  every  accessible  nook  and  cranny 
of  it  for  alluvial  gold)  when  there  are  so  many  much 
pleasanter  and  more  profitable  places,  with,  between  them, 
all  varieties  of  climates  to  choose  from  in  the  wide  latitudes 
of  the  River  Plate  Republics.  De  gustibus,  etc.,  one  must 
suppose — and  yield  obedience  to  the  final  words  of  the 
saying. 

MISIONES 

If  one  has  sufficient  Spanish,  one  should  read  Leopoldo 
Lugones'  Imperio  Jesuitico,  and  also  the  same  author's 
Guerras  Gauchas,  before  going  to  Misiones.  If  not,  one 
should  go  there  all  the  same. 

This  territory  is  bounded  on  the  North-East  and  South 
by  Brazil,  and  on  the  West  by  Paraguay  and  the  Province 
of  Corrientes.  It  is  sandwiched  in  between  the  rivers  Parana 
and  Uruguay,  but  a  very  much  smaller  Parana  and  Uruguay 
than  we  have  seen  further  south. 

Many  parts  of  Argentina  have  been  described  as  "  The 
Garden  of  the  Republic,"  and  many  as  its  most  picturesque 
region,  but  the  latter  description  can  surely  only  truthfully 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       201 

apply  to  Misiones.  If  not  sufficiently  trim  and  cultivated  to 
be  called  a  garden,  its  superlative  beauty  and  its  crowning 
marvel  the  Iguazii  Falls  must  leave  even  the  most  callous 
visitor  pleasurably  astounded  ;  and  not  a  little  awestruck 
with  its  ruins  and  reminiscences  of  the  dawn  of  South 
American  civilization,  which  was  heralded  in  these  parts 
by  the  Jesuit  Fathers.  These  Missionaries  made  most 
practical  Christians  of  the  surrounding  tribes ;  teaching 
them  the  arts  of  architecture,  carpentry,  and  such-like  ; 
not  forgetting  humility  and  obedience. 

If  one  wants  proof  of  all  this  one  need  but  look  on  the  ruins 
of  monastery  and  church  now  half  hidden  amid  an  ever- 
encroaching  luxuriant  vegetation. 

The  descendants  of  those  same  Indians  can  hardly  be  got 
to  do  as  much  work  in  a  lifetime  now  as  they  must  have  done 
in  a  week  under  the  mild  but  very  firm  rule  of  the  Jesuit 
Fathers.  Eventually,  the  power  these  Missionaries  had 
attained  over  the  surrounding  tribes  became  such  as  to  label 
them  dangerous  to  even.  Catholic  Spain  ;  and  an  order  was 
given,  and  enforced,  for  their  expulsion.  They  were  scattered : 
and  but  the  ruins  of  their  solid,  sculptured  masonry,  gardens 
and  orange  and  olive  groves  now  mark  the  places  where  once 
white-clad  natives  kept  fast  and  feast  days  with  as  much 
solemn  orderliness  as  ever  so  many  timid  monastic  novices 
could  do. 

Nowadays,  one  can  get  from  Buenos  Aires  to  Misiones 
either  by  rail  (North-East  Argentine  Railway)  or  by  the 
Mihanovich  company's  boats.  Both  ways  furnish  delightful 
travelling  through  interesting  and  picturesque  country, 
though  for  pure  scenery  the  river  way  is  the  best.  The  best 
of  all,  however,  is  to  go  up  by  rail  and  down  again  by  boat 
and  to  see  all  there  is,  and  there  is  a  very  great  deal  worth 
seeing,  to  be  seen. 

By  cither  route  one  can  stop  at  Posadas,  the  capital, 
evidently  from  its  name  an  ancient  resting-place  for 
travellers  (Posada  being  Spanish  for  an  inn). 


202    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

But  people  who  are  bent  on  reaching  San  Ignacio,  a  small 
river  port,  or  rather  clearance  on  the  Upper  Parand,  near 
which  are  the  chief  of  the  ruined  Jesuit  Missions,  and  the 
Iguazu  Falls  will  probably  leave  Posadas  for  closer  inspection 
if  need  be,  on  the  return  journey. 

Once  again  we  board  a  Mihanovich  boat  and  go  up  a 
seeming  river  of  fairyland. 

An  adequate  description  of  the  majestic  splendour  and 
beauty  of  the  Iguazu  Falls  is  far  beyond  the  pen  of  the 
present  writer.  One  is  gradually  prepared  for  the  great 
sight  by  a  series  of  smaller  cascades  and  cataracts  of  other 
converging  rivers  which  one  passes  on  the  way  to  where  the 
Iguazu  hurls  its  large  volume  of  water  in  downward  jumps 
or  in  one  horseshoe-shaped,  thundering,  frothy  mass.  Where 
it  falls  one  is  face  to  face  with  the  greatest  waterfalls  in  the 
whole  world,  1  as  the  following  comparative  figures  will  show : 


Volume  cubic 

per  minute.''^ 

Breadth. 

Height. 

Iguazu    . 

28,000  ft. 

•       13.133  ft-       . 

196  to  220  ft. 

Victoria  (S.  Africa)  . 

18,000  ft. 

5,580  ft.       . 

350  to  360  ft. 

Niagara 

18,000  ft. 

5,249  ft.       . 

150  to  164  ft. 

The  only  point  of  advantage  of  the  Victoria  Falls  is  their 
height. 

The  present  chief  source  of  wealth  in  Misiones  is  the 
various  kinds  of  timber  and  valuable  cabinet-maker's  woods 
found  in  its  virgin  forests.  One  day  Misiones  will  doubtless 
export  its  rosewood  and  other  beautiful  and  valuable 
products  of  its  forests,  which  also  produce  pine  and  other 
building  timber  of  superior  quality  to  that  which  Argentina 
now  imports  from  Europe.  Transport  of  timber  is  effected 
by  means  of  tying  it  into  huge  rafts  which  go  down  river  as 
far  as  Corrientes.  The  timber  supply  of  Misiones  will  long 
continue  rich,  since  the  tendency  of  the  forest  is  ever  to 
encroach  on  the  surrounding  land. 

A  growing  industry  on  which  great  expectations  are  based 
is  the  cultivation  of  the  Ilex  Paraguayensis,  or  mate  shrub. 

1  Those  of  Guayra,  in  Brazil,  are  rather  rapids  than  falls. 
^  This  volume  is  subject  to  great  fluctuations. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       203 

The  consumption  of  mate  or  Paraguayan  tea,  as  it  is  some- 
times called  in  Europe,  is  enormous  throughout  both  of  the 
River  Plate  Republics,  which  now  import  very  large  quanti- 
ties annually  from  Paraguay  and  Brazil,  while  no  sort  of 
good  reason  seems  to  exist  why  the  northern  districts  of 
Argentina  should  not  grow  sufficient  to  meet  the  home 
consumption. 

The  Jesuits  evidently  appreciated  and  cultivated  this 
shrub,  but  they  had  the  secret  of  growing  it  from  seed,  a 
secret  the  true  re-discovery  of  which  by  modern  horti- 
culturists is  not  yet  quite  proved.^ 

Up  till  quite  recently  all  Misiones  mate  yerba  has  been 
gathered  from  the  abundant  virgin  growth  of  the  shrub. 
Once  Misiones  produced  larger  quantities  of  sugar  than  it 
does  now ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  this  industry  should 
not  revive  from  the  almost  total  paralysis  which  it  at 
present  suffers  ;  nor  why  one  day  the  wine  output  of 
Misiones  should  not  be  improved  in  both  quality  and 
quantity. 

Maize  naturally  grows  well  (it  yields  in  six  months)  in 
Misiones  ;  which  Territory  with  the  general  warmth  of  its 
climate,  sufficient  rainfall  and  heavy  dews,  is  most  favourable 
to  tropical  and  subtropical  vegetation.  Oranges,  of  course, 
bananas,  pineapples,  and  guavas  grow  practically,  if  not 
quite,  wild  and  ground  nuts  and  the  castor-oil  plant  are 
among  its  many  valuable  products.  The  whole  of  Misiones 
is  well  watered  by  a  network  of  very  numerous  streams,  and 
if  its  atmosphere  by  day  is  rather  reminiscent  of  a  hothouse, 
the  nights  are  usually  cool  and  refreshing. 

The  unevenness  of  its  surface,  while  precluding  much  idea 
of  extensive  cultivation,  is  admirably  suited  for  the  shelter 
and  care  of  the  best  natural  produce  of  this  exotically 
picturesque  region. 

Misiones  has  quarries  of  valuable  granite  at  San  Ignacio  ; 
close  to  the  river  as  if  they  had  been  placed  there  for  facility 

^  Mate  seed  must  either  be  picked  while  it  is  very  young  and  soft  or 
else  be  chemically  treated  to  soften  it  before  planting. 


204    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  transport.  These  quarries  furnished  the  Jesuits  with  the 
material  for  their  famous  buildings ;  though  that  they  per- 
suaded the  natives,  who  before  their  coming  had  little 
ambition  for  anything  save  inter-tribal  warfare,  to  quarry, 
transport  and  build  up  solid  masonry  is  nothing  short  of 
marvellous.  Truly  Jesuit  "  influence  "  was  a  very  real  and 
concrete  thing  in  the  Misiones  of  those  days. 

One  must  not  forget  tobacco,  or  cotton,  as  other  of 
Misiones'  hitherto  greatly  neglected  industries. 

One  cannot  insist  too  much  upon  the  fact  that  no  one  who 
does  not  himself  visit  the  River  Plate  Republics  in  all  their 
length  and  breadth  can  really  grasp  even  a  faint  idea  of  their 
diversified  latent  wealth.  One  is  apt  to  suppose  that  because 
Misiones,  for  instance,  does  not  produce  much  tobacco  or 
sugar,  1  there  is  some  pretty  solid  obstacle  at  the  bottom  of 
its  relative  non-productiveness.  People  naturally  think, 
"  Well,  it's  all  very  well  to  chant  dithyrambics  of  the 
marvellous  might  be's  of  what  evidently  are  your  pet 
countries,  but  why  does  all  this  wonderful  wealth  of  them 
continue  latent,  why  does  not  one  see,  or  at  least  hear,  a 
great  deal  more  about  it,  if  all  you  say  is  true  ?  " 

The  reply  for  this  is,  "  Give  me  sufficient  capital  and 
sufficient  suitable  labour  (especially  the  latter)  and  I  will 
very  speedily  prove  my  every  word." 

The  River  Plate  Republics  have  not  yet  (again  I  say  it) 
sufficient  population  to  exploit  even  a  part  of  their  possible 
cereal  industry,  the  one  which  naturally  gets  first  attention 
because  it  combines  the  attractions  of  rich  profit  and  com- 
paratively little  care  or  labour,  under  the  almost  primitive 
conditions  under  which  most  of  it  is  still  carried  on. 

When  there  is  a  surplus  of  labour  after  grain  and  cattle 
have  been  duly  provided  for,  all  sorts  of  other  things  will  be 
attended  to.  But  it  is  no  good  expecting  ordinary  people, 
without  the  many  more  or  less  occult  advantages  of  early 
Jesuit  Fathers,  to  get  any  constantly  careful  work,  such  as 

*  Most  of  the  sugar  produced  in  these  Northern  Territories  goes  to 
make  cana,  or  native  rum. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       205 

cotton,  tobacco  and  many  other  valuable  crops  require,  out 
of  native  South  American  Indians,  They  can't  or  won't  do 
it,  anyway,  they  don't ;  and  it  is  probably  easier  to  re- 
discover how  to  grow  mate  yerba  from  seed  than  how  to  re- 
discipline  for  practical  purposes  the  race  which  built  and 
gardened  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 

The  North  Argentine  Railway  has  in  project  a  branch  from 
its  Santo  Tome-Posadas  line  to  run  through  the  centre  of 
Misiones  to  the  North- West  corner  where  the  frontiers  of 
Argentina,  Brazil  and  Paraguay  join. 

FORMOSA 

This,  the  northernmost  of  the  Argentine  National 
Territories,  does  not  merit  the  superlative  of  its  name  ; 
especially  it  does  not  do  so  when  compared  with  Misiones. 
Geographically  and  in  its  general  superficial  characteristics 
Formosa  is  a  continuation  of  the  Chaco,  by  which  it  is 
bounded  on  the  South.  On  the  North  and  East  it  is  bounded 
by  Paraguay  except  at  its  South-Eastem  corner,  where  its 
boundary  is  the  river  Paraguay,  with  the  Province  of  Cor- 
rientea  on  the  other  bank.  On  the  West  it  is  bounded  by  the 
Province  of  Salta. 

Much  of  Formosa  is  almost  unknown  land  as  far  as  really 
scientific  exploration  is  concerned  ;  and  some  tribes  of  its 
ToBA  Indians  still  appear  to  have  an  inconveniently  violent 
dislike  of  official  explorers,  several  having  been  murdered 
by  natives  in  recent  times. 

The  real  exploration  of  the  interior  of  Formosa  is  done  by 
squatters  who,  when  turned  off  one  holding,  move  on  to  a 
new  one  further  from  the  civilisation  which,  such  as  it  is,  is 
mostly  to  be  found  on  the  River  Paraguay,  or  near  to  it  on 
the  banks  of  its  chief  affluents,  the  Pilcolmayo  (which  forms 
the  Northern  boundary  between  this  territory  and  Paraguay) 
and  the  Bermejo.  The  clearance  of  the  rocks,  sunken  logs  and 
masses  of  vegetation  from  the  beds  of  these  rivers  as  a  pre- 
liminary to  the  carrying  out  of  other  works  for  the  purpose 


206    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  making  them  navigable  is  under  consideration  by  the 
National  Government,  which  also  proposes  to  build  a  railway 
line  from  Embarcacion,  in  the  Province  of  Salta,  across  the 
centre,  almost,  of  Formosa,  in  a  South-Easterly  direction,  to 
its  capital,  a  town  of  the  same  name  and,  doubtless,  the  first 
to  bear  it.    At  present  Formosa  has  no  railroad  at  all. 

This  Territory  has  several  other  considerable  rivers  and 
streams  all  running  nearly  parallel  to  one  another  and  to 
the  Pilcolmayo  and  Bermejo,  in  South-Easterly  direction,  to 
the  River  Paraguay. 

Almost  the  whole  of  its  surface  is  a  vast  plain  gently 
inclined  ;  its  South-Eastern  part  is  largely  covered  with 
forests  and  dotted  with  many  shallow  swamp-like  lakes — 
"  Esteros,"  as  they  are  called. 

The  forests  are  very  rich  in  various  valuable  woods  ;  of 
which  the  chief  object  of  present  commerce  is  the  Quebracho, 
which  here,  as  elsewhere  in  the  Republic,  is  found  in  two 
varieties,  the  red  and  the  white.  The  former  is  the  richest 
in  tannin.  Quebracho  extract  (for  tanning  purposes)  will  be 
seen  to  figure  prominently  in  the  tables  relating  to  Argentine 
exports.  1  Quebracho  logs  are  in  constant  demand  for  railway 
sleepers. 

The  wide  glades  and  open  spaces  in  the  forest  afford 
excellent  pasturage,  and  are  all  eminently  suitable  for  agri- 
culture. Some  parts  of  this  territory  are  destined  to  become 
rich  alfalfa  fields,  and  already  relatively  considerable  areas 
are  under  this  forage.  There  is  plenty  of  salt,  sandy  soil  with 
water  near  the  surface.  Maize  also,  on  account  of  climatic 
conditions  and  the  nature  of  the  soil  in  parts  (where  a  rich 
layer  of  humus  is  superimposed  on  a  moist,  sandy  subsoil), 
should  form  a  valuable  crop  in  this  Territory. 

Formosa,  with  its  Northern  situation  and  therefore  almost 
tropical  climate,  has  few  sheep  ;  but  cattle,  still  of  the  native 
breed,  thrive  well  in  many  parts. 

^  Prior  to  the  War,  Germany  imported  large  quantities  of  Quebracho 
logs  for  extract-manufacturing  and  other  tanning  purposes. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       207 

Also,  in  Formosa,  and  in  Misiones,  a  large  proportion  of 
traction  bullocks  must  be  reckoned  among  the  numerical 
value  of  their  cattle. 

In  Formosa  the  summer  or  rainy  season  lasts  for  about 
seven  months  of  the  year  ;  little  or  no  rain  falls  in  the  winter 
or  dry  season — as  in  the  tropics.  In  the  wet  season  many  of 
the  rivers  overflow  their  banks  and  such,  likely,  inundations 
should  be  taken  into  account  by  any  would-be  purchaser  of 
land  in  Formosa. 

He  should  also  keep  his  eyes  open  for  dangers  other  than 
floods  ;  for  if  scientific  exploration  cannot  yet  be  said  to 
have  obtained  any  firm  grasp  of  Formosa,  how  much  less 
can  measurements  and  boundaries  be  hoped  to  be  in  order. 
They  are  not  so  in  most  of  this  Territory,  and  a  purchasing 
settler  might  eventually  find  himself  with  little  for  his 
trouble  and  money  but  the  costs  of  a  lawsuit  forced  upon 
him  by  some  owner  of  an  historic  grant  made  by  a  grateful 
Republic  in  bygone  days  to  the  grandfather  of  such  owner 
for  distinguished  service  of  one  kind  or  another. 

Latifundios,  these  low-lying  Argentine  land-owners  are 
called ;  and  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  as  has  been  indicated 
elsewhere  in  these  pages,  that  their  existence  is  a  pest  and  a 
menace  to  proper  colonisation. 

Every  such  absentee  landlord  should  be  forced  by  law  to 
declare  himself  and  his  claims,  and  to  furnish  measurements 
and  situation  of  the  land,  the  subject  of  the  latter  to  be 
checked  by  the  Government  surveyors  and  lawyers  ;  and 
to  do  this  within  a  fixed  reasonable  period  from  the  date  of 
the  passing  of  such  laws.  His  claim  to  lapse  absolutely 
ipso  facto  in  default  of  his  doing  so. 

Then  the  National  Government  should  proceed  to  allot 
fiscal  lands  to  all  desirable  comers,  and  afford  these  the 
aids  to  starting  their  farms  and  plantations  usual  in  other 
countries  having  unoccupied  land  awaiting  development,  as 
still  is  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  territory  of  the  Argentine 
Republic. 


208    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Every  educated  Argentine  is  just  as  well  aware  of  all  this 
as  the  writer  or  you,  the  reader;  but  just  think  what  a 
flutter  in  aristocratic  dovecotes  on  the  mere  suggestion  of 
the  putting  in  practice  of  such  Laws  (they  or  drafts  of  them 
probably  exist  in  the  pigeon-holes  of  Government  House  in 
Buenos  Aires)  !  What  a  fluttering  in  those  dovecotes  there 
was  a  few  years  ago  when  the  discovery  was  made,  and  most 
imprudently  revealed,  that  vast  tracts  of  land  supposed  to 
belong  to  the  Nation  had  in  fact  got,  in  one  way  or  another, 
into  the  possession  of  private  individuals. 

The  then  President,  Dr.  Figueroa  Alcorta,  declared 
vehemently  (and  caused  the  declaration  to  be  pubHshed  far 
and  wide)  that  whomsoever  were  found  to  be  responsible  for 
such  a  scandalous  state  of  things  would  be  dealt  with  without 
mercy,  whoever  he  or  they  might  be. 

That  was  all. 

The  sentence  was  like  those  of  the  Queen  of  Hearts  in 
Alice  in  Wonderland.  No  one  really  ever  was  executed. 
Nor,  as  far  as  the  public  ever  knew,  even  called  to  account. 
Possibly  someone  was  told  not  to  do  it  again  ;  it  must  be 
hoped  so. 

In  Formosa,  latent  absentee  landlord  and  squatter  would 
almost  appear  to  work  on  a  mutually  beneficial,  if  tacit, 
understanding.  The  former  does  not  in  the  least  mind 
his  land  being  developed  by  the  latter  (there  is  no  foolish 
worry  about  such  things  as  prescriptive  rights)  and  generally 
lets  him  be  ;  until  such  time  as  he,  the  landlord,  wants  to 
occupy  himself  or  sell. 

Meanwhile  the  squatter  has  accumulated  cattle  and 
money  by  selling  stock  (contraband,  if  possible,  or  covered 
by  a  few  duty-paying  animals)  in  Paraguay,  and  need  only 
move  on  a  few  leagues  or  so,  when  told  to,  with  his  herds. 
His  house  and  furniture  are  usuafly  negligible  quantities. 

Formosa  does  as  much  trade  as  the  total  of  its  general 
products  (except  timber,  which  goes  South)  allows  of, 
because  Paraguay  is  generally  too  much  overrun  by  revo- 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES       209 

lutionary,  or  momentarily  constitutional,  forces  to  have 
much  time  or  space  free  for  industrial  occupations.  At  the 
same  time  Paraguay  does  manage  to  produce  large  quantities 
of  tobacco  and  mate  yerba  which  Argentina  takes,  although, 
as  has  already  been  observed,  her  own  lands  could  perfectly 
well  produce  them,  given  suitable  labour. 

As  has  been  rather  more  than  hinted  at,  the  official 
Returns  of  Imports  and  Exports  as  between  Bolivia,  Para- 
guay and  Brazil  and  Argentina  give  but  a  faint  idea  of  the 
actual  trade  between  the  last-named  and  her  northern 
neighbours  ;  and  the  present  writer  would  be  much  sur- 
prised to  learn  that  the  upper  reaches  of  the  River  Uruguay 
could  tell  no  tales  of  systematic  smuggling  between  the  two 
River  Plate  Republics,  or  the  Andes  none  of  similar  practices 
between  Argentina  and  Chile. 

The  fact  is  that  adequate  guard  of  these  enormous  and 
sparsely  populated  lengths  of  up-country  frontier  would 
cost  more  than  the  results  of  it  would  pay  for.  And  why 
make  a  fuss  while  such  prime  necessities  of  life  as  mate  and 
cigarettes  are  comparatively  so  cheap  ? 

Formosa  produces  tobacco  and  sugar ;  the  latter,  as 
in  Misiones,  being  chiefly  used  for  the  production  of 
alcohol. 

A  great  deal  of  foreign  capital  is  now  invested  in  timber 
cutting  and  exporting  companies.  Native  labour  is  suitable 
for  this  work,  but  it  is  desirable  in  the  interests  of  the  com- 
panies concerned  that  the  native  overseers  or  gangers  be 
controlled  by  whites  conversant  with  native  ways  and  also 
having  the  gift  of  forest  topography. 

This  last  consideration  is  suggested  by  the  undoubted  fact 
that  many  a  pile  of  logs  has  been  solemnly  measured  up 
and  the  felling  paid  for  several  times  over  by  the  white 
gentleman  who  has  failed — in  consequence  of  a  slight  re- 
arrangement of  the  pile,  no  doubt — to  recognise  them  on 
successive  visits  to  glades  and  clearings  which  all  look  very 
much  ahke  except  to  particularly  experienced  eyes. 
14 


210    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Thus  does  the  untutored  Indian  or  half-caste  sometimes 
laugh  at  civihzation. 

Formosa,  although  sparsely  inhabited,  boasts  a  large  pro- 
portion of  pure  whites  of  various  nationalities  among  its 
settlers  and  the  timber  companies'  employees.  There  are 
several  Franciscan  Mission  Stations  in  the  Territory. 

This  hasty  run  over  the  Argentine  Republic  has  stirred 
many  pleasant  memories  in  the  heart  of  the  writer,  and  set 
him  hoping  that,  perchance,  some  one  reader  may  be 
tempted  to  take  passage  to  the  River  Plate  ;  at  less  cost 
than,  and  quite  as  luxuriously  as,  if  he  made  his  usual 
sojourn  on  the  Mediterranean  Riviera. 

Would  I  could  take  him — an  intelligently  enthusiastic 
person  he,  of  course,  would  be — on  a  personally  conducted 
tour  of  my  own  designing. 

We  would  go  first  to  Buenos  Aires,  reserving  the  restful 
charm  of  Montevideo  for  after  our  journeyings.  Then 
down  South  ;  where  I  should  quite  disabuse  my  gentle 
companion  of  any  ideas  he  might  have  that  the  owners  of 
square  miles  of  wheat  and  thousands  of  cattle  live  in  top 
boots  and  shirt  sleeves  in  one-storied,  corrugated-iron 
verandahed  houses  in  the  foreground  of  threshing  machines. 
I  would  get  him  invited — and  myself  as  well — to  stay  a  day 
or  two  at  an  English  estancia  ;  the  large,  well-appointed 
two  or  three  storied  red-brick  house  of  which,  surrounded  by 
lawns  and  spreading  cedar  trees,  would  make  him  rub  his  eyes 
several  times  before  he  were  convinced  that  he  had  sailed 
out  of  England.  He  would  surely  find  a  house  party  from 
Buenos  Aires  or  neighbouring — a  wide  term  meaning, 
probably,  many  leagues  away— estancias  in  possession  ;  all 
the  members  of  which  would  retain  their  old  habits  of  dressing 
for  dinner  and  breakfasting  off  a  choice  of  several  hot  dishes 
and  a  tempting  array  of  cold  things  on  the  sideboard.  An 
English  country  house,  in  fact,  with  hall  and  magazines  and 
illustrated  papers  complete. 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES      211 

Then  we  should  make  plans  for  the  following,  and,  prob- 
ably, many  other  morrows ;  plans  which  would  almost 
inevitably  include  a  neighbourly  race  meeting  or  polo 
match. 

Amid  all  this  he  could  dree  his  own  weird  for  as  long  as 
might  please  him.  I  should  not  disturb  any  of  his  promised 
projects. 

But  one  day  I  should  take  him  North  again  ;  and  still 
further  North,  to  Cordoba,  "  The  Learned  City,"  show  him 
the  Cathedral,  the  University  and  its  Library,  and  let  him 
breathe  the  monastically  mediaeval  atmosphere  of  it  all. 
And,  outside  the  city,  the  wildness  of  cactus  growth  and 
gaucho  life. 

Back  eastward  to  Rosario,  merely  to  change  train  for 
Santa  F^,  and  across  the  Uruguay  to  Parana.  From  thence 
to  Concordia  ;  where  at  least  one  tranquil  orange-scented 
morning  must  be  spent  before  one  crossed  the  Province  of 
Entre  Rios  to  where  the  Argentine  North-East  Railway 
should  take  us  to  Misiones. 

After  San  Ignacio,  the  Iguazu  Falls  and  the  trip  thereto 
and  therefrom  up  and  down  the  Upper  Parand,  I  should  ask 
him  if  he  ever  wanted  to  go  anywhere  else  again  ?  Whether 
he  has  ever  even  dreamed  of  anything  so  beautiful  ?  Then 
by  river  all  the  way  back  to  Buenos  Aires  ;  and,  one  night, 
across  to  Montevideo.  There  we  would  sit  awhile  in  the 
evening  and  listen  to  the  band  in  the  square  where  the  little 
coloured  lamps  swing  in  the  fresh  sea  breeze  ;  and  bathe 
next  morning  and  roll  ourselves  in  the  hot  dry  sand  of  Pocitos 
or  Ramirez. 

Then  we  would  take  railway  trips  in  Uruguay.  Over 
billowy  pasturage  and  through  waves  of  wheat ;  not  flat 
expanses  such  as  those  we  shall  have  seen  on  the  Pampa,  but 
seas  of  corn-covered,  undulating  ground. 

Then  he  could  go  back  to  Europe,  if  he  liked.  I  should 
stay. 


212  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

URUGUAY 

If  a  detailed  sketch  of  each  of  the  Departments  of  Uruguay 
be  not  given  here  it  is  not  because  they  are  altogether  uniform 
in  their  landscapes  ;  but  rather  because,  apart  from  the  hilly 
rockiness  of  some  of  the  northern  parts,  the  scenery  of 
Uruguay  does  repeat  itself.  While  the  cUmatic  differences 
are  relatively  slight  in  a  country  which  barely  extends  over, 
from  the  point  of  its  extreme  northern  angle  to  its  most 
southerly  point,  five  degrees  of  latitude  ;  in  comparison 
with  those  of  Argentina,  which  extends  over  thirty-five 
degrees. 

Uruguay,  therefore,  has  no  striking  variety  of  climates  ; 
and  except  that  the  surface  of  the  Northern  Provinces  is 
more  broken  with  jagged  mountain  ranges  and  that  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  River  Uruguay  and  its  affluents  the 
country  is  more  thickly  wooded,  there  is  not  much  change  to 
be  noted  anywhere  from  its  general  character  of  an  undu- 
lating grassy  plain,  with  here  and  there  a  mount,  or  clump  of 
low  wood  and  brushwood,  and  an  abundance  of  running 
streams. 

Its  indigenous  flora  comprises  a  rich  wealth  of  rosemary, 
acacia,  myrtle,  laurel,  mimosa,  and  the  scarlet-flowered 
CEIBO  ;  while  its  natural  pasturage  is  gay  with  red  and  white 
verbena  and  other  brilliantly  coloured  wild  flowers.  The 
best  natural  grasses  are  to  be  found  in  the  Departments  of 
Soriano  and  Durazno  and  in  parts  of  Paysandu  and  Tacuar- 
embo.  That  is  to  say  where  what  is  known  as  the  "  Pampa 
MUD  "  of  the  soil  is  mingled  with  calcareous  and  siliceous 
matter  and  contains  less  aluminium,  which  last  ingredient 
imparts  cold  and  damp  qualities. 

It  should  not  be  assumed  from  the  above  short  general 
description  that  the  scenery  of  Uruguay  is  monotonously 
uninteresting.  It  is  not ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  often  very 
beautiful  indeed,  with  sudden  and  delightfully  surprising 
changes  as  the  train  speeds  along.    But  these  changes  are 


A  GLANCE  AT  THE  PROVINCES      213 

on  a  small  scale,  if  one  may  so  express  oneself,  compared  with 
those  which  one  experiences  when  passing  from  one  distant 
Argentine  Province  or  National  Territory  to  another. 

Indeed,  as  a  glance  at  the  map  will  show,  geographically, 
Uruguay  and  the  Brazilian  state  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  can 
almost  be  considered  as  parts  of  Argentina  ;  as,  politically, 
they  once  very  nearly  were. 

The  real  great  division  of  the  nature  of  the  surface  of 
Uruguay  is  practically  formed  by  the  course  of  its  Rio  Negro ; 
on  each  side  of  which  are  vast  rolling  plains,  the  northern  of 
which,  however,  are,  as  has  been  said,  traversed  by  ranges  of 
indented  rocky  hills. 

The  whole  of  Uruguay  is  subject  to  abrupt  changes  of 
temperature  and  frequent  strong  winds  of  which  the  Pam- 
pero, from  the  South-West,  is  the  most  violent. 

Generally,  the  cHmate  is  pleasantly  mild.  For  while  the 
summer  suns  are  hot,  especially  in  the  North,  sea  breezes  and 
winds  from  the  snow-capped  Andes  modify  the  temperature. 
It  is,  however,  from  these  conflicting  elements  of  sun  and 
wind  that  Uruguay  gets  her  quick  changes  of  temperature 
and  frequent  storms.  The  whole  country  is  subject  to 
alternate  overflowing  of  its  rivers  and  drought. 

Uruguay  is  rich  in  table  fruits.  Grapes,  oranges,  lemons, 
apples,  pears,  quinces,  melons,  passion-flower  fruit,  peaches, 
apricots,  cherries,  medlars,  figs,  chestnuts,  almonds  and,  in 
the  North,  ohves,  dates  and  bananas,  grow  in  abundance. 
The  hst  of  her  flora  also  includes  sarsaparilla  (very  abundant), 
quinine,  camomile  and  many  other  valuable  medicinal 
plants.  Uruguayans  have  also  given  themselves  the  trouble 
to  produce  relatively  much  larger  quantities,  and,  generally 
speaking,  better  qualities  of  ordinary  table  vegetables  than 
have  the,  perhaps  busier,  inhabitants  of  the  larger  Republic 
across  the  river ;  to  which,  however,  Uruguay  daily  sends 
large  quantities  of  such  produce. 

Uruguay  has  several  large  flour  mills  and  exports  flour, 
chiefly  to  Brazil, 


214    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Most  of  the  soil  consists  of  one  composition  or  another  of 
the  Pampa  mud  before  alluded  to.  This  mud  is  really 
ancient  alluvial  deposit. 

Of  the  latent  mineral  wealth  of  Uruguay  there  can  be 
little  doubt.  The  Department  of  Minas,  as  its  name  indi- 
cates, is  one  of  the  richest  in  this  respect.  Gold,  in  quartz 
formation,  silver,  copper,  iron,  lead,  some  coal,  marble  of 
various  kinds,  slate,  rock  crystal,  agates,  jasper,  graphite, 
alabaster,  black  limestone  and  other  minerals  of  commercial 
and  industrial  value  are  to  be  found  in  this  Department  and 
in  other  parts  of  the  Republic.  Fine  building  limestone  is 
found  in  the  Department  of  Maldonado.  The  Department 
of  Colonia  is  rich  in  granite  and  other  building  stone,  as  well 
as  other  minerals.  Rocha,  Soriano,  San  Jos6,  Florida  and 
Canelones  are  other  Departments  rich  in  mineral  wealth. 

This  wealth  has,  however,  as  yet  been  little  exploited. 
The  old  trouble  here,  as  in  Argentina,  being  that  of  insuf- 
ficient labour  to  attend  to  more  than  the  primary  industries 
of  Live  Stock  and  Cereal  production.  Also  the  Uruguayan 
Mining  Laws,  though  steps  have  recently  been  taken  to 
amend  them,  have  hitherto  proved  but  a  poor  protection 
for  capital. 


Note. — The  wealth  of  the  Argentine  National  Territories  of 
The  Chaco  and  Los  Andes  is,  as  to  the  former  still  practically 
confined  to  the  valuable  forestal  products,  full  mention  of  which 
has  been  made  elsewhere  in  these  pages.  The  future  of  Los 
Andes  can  only  be  concerned  with  the  exploitation  of  its,  prob- 
ably rich,  mineral  deposits ;  this  Mountainous  Territory  being 
so  cold  and  arid  as  to  be  almost  uninhabitable. 


CHAPTER  XI 
AGRICULTURE 

THE  figures  representing  the  progress  of  Agriculture 
in  the  River  Plate  Republics,  especially  in  Argen- 
tina, which  has  had  the  advantage  of  freedom 
from  Civil  War  during  by  far  the  longer  period,  during  the 
last  few  decades  are  truly  astounding. 

In  1875  the  value  of  the  principal  Argentine  Agricultural 
Exports  was  but  114,557  gold  dollars  ;  in  1913  the  value 
of  these  exports  was  307,520,854  gold  dollars.  In  1892  the 
total  of  the  cultivated  areas  of  the  Republic  was  only 
580,008  hectares  ;  in  1912  there  were  22,987,726  hectares 
under  cultivation,  this  figure  not  including  the  pasturage 
improved  with  foreign  grasses.  The  first  ten  kilometres  of 
railway  line  in  the  River  Plate  Territories  were  laid  in 
Argentina  in  1857,  now  the  extent  of  lines  in  that  Republic 
is  over  21,000  miles,  and  that  in  Uruguay  over  1590  miles, 
making  a  total  for  both  Republics  of  over  22,500  miles,  or 
rather  less  than  the  total  length  (23,350  miles)  of  the  lines 
in  Great  Britain.  And  new  lines  and  extensions  are  pro- 
jected in  all  directions  and  will  prove  profitable. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  taken  for  granted  by  the  above 
juxtaposition  that  the  railroad  has  been  the  whole  and  direct 
cause  of  agricultural  extension.  That  many  other  causes 
have  been  at  work  is  evident  since  River  Plate  agriculture 
and  export  flourished  long  before  the  railway  was  dreamed 
of  anywhere.  During  the  early  years  of  its  life  in  the  River 
Plate  Republics  the  railroad  was  busily  enough  occupied  in 
the  endeavour  to  serve  districts  already  under  cultivation  ; 

215 


216    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

and  it  is  only  in  very  recent  times  that  one  of  the  great 
Enghsh  Companies  adopted  the,  even  then  much  criticized, 
poHcy  of  extensions  to  secure  in  advance  a  sphere  of  future 
cultivation.  It  may  be  added  that  no  adverse  criticism  of 
this  policy  (but  only  approving  admiration)  came  from 
anyone  practically  capable  of  forming  an  opinion  of  the 
agricultural  prospects  on  which  it  was  soundly  based. 

Still,  Argentine  railway  enterprise  in  general  is  conserva- 
tive in  that  it  rather  waits  on  than  seeks  to  create  a  demand 
for  its  services  ;  so  that  the  rule  in  these  matters  on  the 
River  Plate  continues  to  be  that  the  railway  very  cautiously 
follows  the  lead  of  other  progress  and  enterprise,  and  much 
rich  land  in  the  more  distant  Provinces  and  National 
Territories  lies  fallow  waiting  for  the  railway,  while  the 
railway  is  waiting  till  actual  production  guarantees  the 
immediate  profit  of  new  lines  at  handsome  rates. 

Time  will  solve  this  sort  of  deadlock  as  it  does  other 
things  ;  but  to  most  people,  other  than  railway  directors , 
its  existence  seems  to  indicate  a  lack  of  commercial  courage 
and  energy.  They  manage  some  of  these  things,  in  some 
respects,  better  in  the  United  States. 

At  the  same  time  it  must  be  owned  that  the  existing 
railway  policy  protects  the  countries  now  under  discussion 
from  many  of  the  greater  evils  of  local  land  booms  and 
speculation  in  Town  lots  ;  which  in  early  North  American 
days  often  left  little  but  disillusionment  as  the  share  of 
inexperienced  speculators  and  paved  the  way  for  equally 
disastrous  railway  competition. 

In  Argentina  and  Uruguay,  particularly  in  the  former 
Republic,  the  great  Railway  Companies  form  something 
really  very  like  the  Imperium  in  Imperio  that  the  Argentines 
say  they  do.  Their  General  Managers  are  quite  as  much 
diplomatic  Ministers  Plenipotentiary  as  they  are  actual 
Managers  of  railroads  ;  and,  consequently,  require  quali- 
fications of  which  the  chiefs  of  even  our  greatest  British 
systems  have  no  need.    The  work  of  a  General  Manager  of 


AGRICULTURE  217 

a  great  River  Plate  railway  system  lies  a  good  deal  at 
Government  House  and  with  the  leading  men  and  politicians 
of  the  country.  He  must  know  how  best  to  protect  the 
vested  interests  of  his  Company  and  to  pave  the  way  for 
new  developments  in  competition  with  newly  arrived  appli- 
cants and  existing  competitors.  For  such  purposes  he  must 
combine  firmness,  serenity  in  protest  if  need  be,  with 
urbanity  and  the  power  to  be  all  pleasant  things  to  all  men 
whose  good-will  is  or  may  possibly  be  of  use  to  his  Company. 
The  shght  diversion  of  a  projected  new  Hue  is  a  small  price 
to  pay  for  the  easy  passage  through  Congress  of  the  scheme 
of  a  whole  important  extension.  A  scheme  which  may 
menace  the  aspirations  of  an  existing  competitor  or  an 
expectant  rival  concessionnaire  ;  either  of  whom  may  also 
command  some  "  influence." 

All  this,  however,  however  true,  is  a  digression  from  the 
question  under  immediate  discussion,  namely,  to  what 
extent  the  railway  has  been  a  cause  or  an  effect  of  the  spread 
of  agriculture  in  the  River  Plate.  The  real  answer  to  this 
question  appears  to  be  that  both  the  railway  in  these 
countries  and  the  agriculture  have  inter-aided  and  are  inter- 
dependent on  one  another  in  the  inevitable  development  of  a 
prosperity  fore-ordained  by  a  prodigality  of  natural  endow- 
ment. 

Comparing  the  figures  representing  the  cultivable  area 
of  these  Republics  with  those  relating  to  the  parts  already 
under  cultivation,  one  can  see  why  extensive  farming  is 
only  just  now  giving  way  to  intensive  systems  in  those 
districts  the  situation  of  which,  in  relatively  close  proximity 
to  the  great  port  of  Buenos  Aires,  combined  with  the  natural 
fertility  of  their  soil,  has  rendered  them  the  most  valuable 
of  all  the  lands  in  the  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  Republics. 
The  capital  valuation  of  these  lands  is  now  so  high,  especially 
in  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  that  all  means  must  be 
adopted  which  will  enhance  their  annual  productivity.  In 
other  parts  it  is  often  cheaper  to  put  more  land  under 


218  ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

cultivation  than  to  lay  out  capital  in  improved  working  of 
that  already  in  hand.  As  facilities  for  transport  and  the 
population  grow,  so  will  the  need  for  intensive  farming,  in 
gradually  increasing  complexity,  be  more  and  more  felt 
and  complied  with  throughout  both  Republics. 

Contemporaneous  with  such  advance  will  be  the  gradual 
development  of  those  products,  other  than  wheat,  linseed, 
maize  and  alfalfa  (to  which  the  whole  available  agricultural 
energies  of  these  countries  have  till  now  been  almost  exclu- 
sively confined),  for  which  the  natural  conditions  of  one  part 
or  another  of  the  two  Republics  are  eminently  favourable — 
such  as  Cotton,  Tobacco,  Timber,  Rice,  Sugar  and,  perhaps. 
Coffee. 

To  quote  a  pamphlet  recently  issued  by  the  Argentine 
Government : — 

There  are  vast  tracts  of  land  available  for  the  cultivation 
of  sugar  cane.  .  .  .  With  the  investment  of  large  amounts  of 
money  and  an  increase  in  the  area  cultivated  this  industry  will 
no  doubt  in  a  few  years  be  able  to  supply  fully  the  demand  and 
have  a  surplus  of  50  per  cent  over  for  exportation. 

This  statement,  notwithstanding  the  rather  quaint 
English  of  the  official  translator,  has  already  nearly  been 
proved  true,  and  might  have  become  so  in  actual  practice 
several  years  ago.  To  quote  again  from  the  same  pamphlet 
and  with  a  similar  endorsement  of  its  statements  : — 

In  the  extensive  regions  existing  in  Salta,  Jujuy,  the  Chaco, 
Formosa,  Misiones,  Corrientes  and  Tucuman  (the  last-named 
with  300,000  hectares  admirably  adapted  for  sowing  sugar  cane) 
the  area  cultivated  will  gradually  increase. 

It  should  and  certainly  will  do  so  at  some  future  time. 
When,  depends  chiefly,  as  do  many,  if  not  most,  other  agri- 
cultural developments  on  the  River  Plate,  on  increase  of 
population. 

In  the  meantime  the  Argentine  National  Ministry  of 
Agriculture  has  done  much  good  work  towards  stimulating 
interest  in  the  undoubtedly  great  possibilities  of  cotton, 


AGRICULTURE  219 

tobacco  and  rice  cultivation.  The  cultivation  of  cotton  is 
no  new  idea  on  the  River  Plate.  It  could  hardly  be  so  when 
there  are  large  districts  so  evidently  and  admirably  adapted 
for  this  crop.  The  reasons  why  several  former  well-meant 
attempts  at  cotton  growing  in  Argentina  were  unsuccessful 
were  the  difficulties  of  obtaining  and  keeping  adequate 
labour,  and  a  too  great  reliance  on  the  bounty  of  nature 
unaided  by  much  human  science.  Selection  and  just  appre- 
ciation of  the  time  for  gathering  were  matters  which  did 
not  receive  sufficient  attention,  and  a  great  obstacle  cer- 
tainly was  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  labour  in  sparsely 
populated  districts,  in  which  the  necessities  of  life  are  pro- 
curable by  all  with  a  minimum  of  effort.  The  natives 
fancied  they  were  being  exploited  if  they  did  not  get  com- 
mercially impossible  rates  of  wages  for  what  appeared  to 
them  extremely  arduous  and  unwontedly  continuous  and 
careful  work.  Work  of  the  satisfactory  execution  of  which, 
moreover,  their  primitive  mentality  was  not  really  capable. 

Even  now  River  Plate  cotton  growing  will  need  to  be 
largely  aided  by  imported  or  colonist  labour.  Given  that 
and  due  scientific  management  and  care,  applied  in  the  first 
place  to  the  selection  of  the  seed  most  suitable  to  the  soil 
and  climate,  there  is  no  sort  of  reason  why  River  Plate 
cotton  should  not  occupy  a  highly  remunerative  place  in 
the  world's  markets,  where  cotton  is  always  in  increasingly 
large  demand. 

Many  districts  in  the  Argentine  Provinces  of  Corrientes, 
Santa  F6,  Salta,  Tucuman,  Catamarca  and  La  Rioja  and 
in  the  National  Territories  of  Misiones,  Formosa  and  the 
Chaco  are  eminently  suited  for  cotton  cultivation. 

It  will  be  observed  that  Argentina  alone  is  almost  always 
here  referred  to  in  connection  with  these  secondary  (as  they 
still  are)  products  of  the  River  Plate  countries.  The  reason 
for  this  is  that,  while  many  parts  of  Uruguay  are  equally 
well  suited  for  their  growth,  the  latter  Republic  is,  owing  to 
her  later  continuance  of  civil  disturbance,  in  a  less  advanced 


220    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

condition  than  Argentina  in  regard  to  extensive  development 
of  the  great  primary  industries  of  cereal  cultivation  and 
stock  breeding. 

Tentative  and  apparently  successful  cultivation  of  better 
classes  of  tobacco  has  already  been  commenced  in  the 
Province  of  Buenos  Aires  and  official  drying  sheds  have  been 
erected  in  each  of  the  Provinces  of  Tucuman,  Salta  and 
Corrientes  and  the  National  Territory  of  Misiones.  These 
facilities  should  greatly  stimulate  the  increase  of  production 
and  improvement  of  quality  of  the  leaf  in  those,  the  most 
climatically  appropriate,  districts.  Even  if  they  should  not 
confer  on  the  growers  the  "  moral  and  intellectual  "  benefits 
explicitly  expected  from  them  by  the  aforementioned 
translator. 

As  for  rice,  even  if  the  question  of  export  be  reserved 
for  future  consideration,  there  is  an  enormous  local  demand 
which  could  very  well  and  profitably  be  supplied  locally. 

Experimental  cultivation  of  this  crop  in  large  and  suitably 
watered  areas  of  the  Provinces  of  Buenos  Aires,  Entre  Rios 
and  Cordoba  has  proved  the  ease  with  which  it  could  be 
grown  in  them. 

Another  crop  in  universal  demand  in  both  Argentina  and 
Uruguay  is  mate,  or  "  Paraguayan  Tea,"  the  leaf  of  the 
Ilex  Paraguayensis.  This  shrub  grows  wild  in  the 
Territory  of  Misiones  and  in  the  Republics  of  Paraguay  and 
Brazil ;  and  Argentina  and  Uruguay  import  it  from  the 
latter  countries  to  annual  values  of  several  millions  of  gold 
dollars.  The  cultivation  of  mate  yerba  only  presents 
difficulty  and  risk  of  loss  during  the  very  earliest  periods 
of  its  growth ;  but  study  has  now  shown  how  to  avoid  most, 
at  any  rate,  of  such  risks,  so  that  it  has  become  an  absurdity 
that  such  an  article  of  universal  daily,  indeed  hourly,  con- 
sumption in  both  of  the  countries  under  consideration 
should  not  be  grown  by  them  in  districts  so  suited  for  the 
cultivation  of  this  shrub  that  they  have  become  its  home 
in  a  perfectly  wild  condition. 


AGRICULTURE  221 

Wherever  one  goes  in  Argentina  and  Uruguay  the  mate 
(as  the  small  gourd  in  which  the  infusion  of  the  dust-hke 
VERBA — "  herb  " — is  made,  and  from  which  it  is  sucked 
up  through  a  special  tube  called  the  "  bombilla  "  from  its 
perforated,  bulb-shaped  end)  is  omnipresent  and  usually 
in  working  evidence  in  the  hands  of  one  or  other  member  of 
the  household  throughout  the  livelong  day. 

Mate  is  a  stimulant  of  great  sustaining  and  stomachic 
qualities  ;  and  its  use  is  not  followed  by  the  depression 
which  follows  excessive  tea  and  coffee  drinking.  A  River 
Plate  peon  will  go  from  daybreak  to  midday,  riding  or  doing 
physically  hard  work  the  whole  while,  on  nothing  more  than 
a  hunch  of  bread  or  a  "  biscuit  "  (a  hard,  dry  maize-flour 
roll)  and  a  few  small  mates.  With  sugar,  mate  is  very  palatable 
and  the  taste  soon  develops  into  a  habit,  but  in  the  camp  it 
is  usually  drunk  "  bitter,"  that  is,  without  sugar,  both 
from  motives  of  economy  and  because  it  is  popularly  sup- 
posed to  be  healthier  and  more  sustaining  when  taken  in 
that  way. 

At  any  rate,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  mate  growing 
must  one  day  become  a  very  large  and  profitable  industry 
in  the  Northern  parts,  where  the  climate  is  suitably  mild, 
of  the  two  Republics. 

The  Jesuit  Fathers,  from  whom  the  Territory  of  Misiones 
derives  its  name,  were  well  aware  of  the  wholesome  qualities 
of  mate  yerba,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  now  wild  growth 
of  the  shrub  in  that  Territory  owes  its  existence  to  their 
cultivation. 

In  connection  with  their  primarily  great  agricultural 
industries,  the  wheat,  maize  and  linseed  crops  which  will 
always  remain  a  chief  pillar  of  their  prosperity  (even  if 
stock-raising  on  the  present  huge  scale  should  be  reduced 
by  the  encroachment  of  agricultural  or,  as  is  most  likely, 
mixed  farming  ;  or  if  the  Adine  regions  prove  as  rich  in 
minerals  as  some  people  would  have  us  believe),  the  River 
Plate   Republics  must  always  occupy  positions  of  ever- 


222    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

increasing  weight  and  importance  on  the  cereal  markets  of 
the  world. 

The  world  wants  meat,  but  it  must  have  bread,  the  true 
staff  of  human  life.  Signs  are  not  wanting  of  the  coming  of 
a  day  when  the  majority  of  the  human  race  will  be  forced 
into  vegetarianism  by  the  growing  scarcity  of  meat ;  but 
the  time  when  wheat  shall  be  no  longer  obtainable  by  the 
multitude  is  so  much  farther  off  on  the  speculative  horizon 
as  to  be  a  negligible  factor  in  any  but  abstract  contemplation. 
As  for  live  stock,  most  middle-aged  people  to-day  can  re- 
trace in  their  own  memories  the  decline  of  the  meat  exports 
of  the  United  States  ;  where  a  rapid  growth  of  population 
and  spread  of  agriculture  have  so  increased  the  local  con- 
sumption and  diminished  the  supply  that  the  States  not 
only  now  eat  all  their  own  meat,  but  already  import  from 
Argentina  and  Uruguay. 

When  the  latter  countries  arrive  at  a  similar  stage  of  their 
development,  as  they  must  do  one  day,  from  whence  will 
they  and  the  rest  of  the  world  get  meat  supplies  ?  Even  the 
greatest  and  most  terrible  war  the  world  has  ever  known  has 
not  reduced  the  population  of  the  globe  to  an  extent  which 
will  do  more  than  very  temporarily,  if  practically  at  all, 
affect  the  question  of  its  future  food  supplies. 

Recently  the  reproductive  capacities  of  the  existing 
Argentine  and  Uruguayan  flocks  and  herds  were  brought 
almost  to  a  standstill  in  respect  of  the  increase  of  their 
numerical  value  ;  chiefly  on  account  of  the  ever-increasing 
demands  and  high  prices  paid  by  the  Cold  Storage  Export 
Companies.^  And  purely  economic  reasons  cause  more  and 
more  land  each  year  to  be  put  under  cereal  cultivation  while 
numerically  large  flocks  and  herds  are  pushed  further  into 
less  accessible  regions  of  the  Republics,  on  the  boundaries 
of  which  vast  quantities  of  finely  bred  animals  already  graze. 

*  The  alarm  caused  by  the  realization  of  this  menace  has  been  fruitful 
of  measures  taken  by  breeders  to  maintain  the  increase  of  stock  :  and  it 
is  just  to  add  that  these  measures  are  already  showing  good  results. 


AGRICULTURE  223 

More  transport  (and  labour) ,  more  cereals  ;  more  cereals, 
less  live  stock :  will  be  the  rule  of  these  Countries'  progress, 
following  that  of  the  great  Northern  Republic.  A  rule 
which  mixed  and  intensive  farming  will  only  modify  in  a 
degree  quite  incommensurate  with  the  experiences  of  an  ever 
and  rapidly  increasing  demand. 

The  future  of  both  Argentina  and  (later  on)  Uruguay 
appears  to  be  bound  up  in  their  cereal  production  (of  which 
wheat,  maize,  linseed  and  oats  are  now  the  chief  elements). 

I  say  appears,  because  the  Andes  may  yet  yield  marvellous 
mineral  treasure  ;  good  coal  may  yet  be  discovered  ;  it  and 
the  petroleum  deposits  of  Comodoro  Rivadavia  and  else- 
where may  yet  provide  fuel  for  manufacturing  industry  ; 
and  the  River  Plate  Republics  may  yet  become  the  great 
pig-producing  countries  of  the  world,  as  a  United  States 
expert  once  prophesied  to  the  present  writer  that  one  day 
they  would  be.  But  all  these  things,  even  if  the  future  do 
hold  them  in  store,  are  beyond  the  perceptibly  practical 
horizon ;  while  the  already  preponderating  influence  of 
cereal  production  on  the  destinies  of  Argentina  is  im- 
mediately evident.  Argentina  practically  supplies  the  world 
with  linseed. 

Uruguay  is  still  in  the  infancy  of  its  agriculture.  It  has  as 
yet  but  some  two  million  acres  of  cultivated  land  as  against 
some  thirty  million  acres  of  pasturage.  But  the  world's 
demands  will  doubtless  lead  it  on  the  same  course  as  that 
imposed  on  the  United  States  and  Argentina  ;  modified, 
perhaps,  to  some  extent  by  the  more  undulating  nature  of  its 
lands  as  compared  with  the  flat  Pampa.  Again,  Uruguay  is 
much  richer  in  running  streams  than  is  Argentina ;  which 
latter  country  is  but  sparsely  provided  with  water  courses, 
especially  in  dry  weather. 

During  the  course  of  the  last  decade  the  value  of  the 
cereals  exported  from  the  River  Plate  tripled. 

The  great  areas  of  cereal  cultivation  are  the  Provinces  of 
Buenos  Aires,  Santa  Fe,  Cordoba  and  Entre  Rios  and  the 


224    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

National  Territory  of  the  Pampa  Central.  Cereal  growing 
in  Uruguay  is  still  chiefly  confined  to  the  Southern  Depart- 
ments of  that  country. 

Nevertheless,  Uruguayan  wheat  has  received  special 
quotations  as  the  highest  quality  of  any  in  the  European 
markets  ;  and  "  Montevideo  wheat,"  as  it  is  called,  is  much 
purchased  by  Argentine  exporters  to  mix  with  their  own 
grain.  The  cultivation  of  alfalfa  (lucerne)  is  also  increasing 
with  enormous  rapidity,  both  for  home  consumption  and 
export ;  and  is  likely  to  show  still  greater  proportionate 
increase  as  mixed  and  intensive  farming  grow  in  favour. 

Economic  necessity  may  also  soon  increase  the  cultivation 
of  this  valuable  plant  as  an  alternate  crop  on,  and  restorative 
for,  the  exhausted  soil  of  many  districts  where  wheat  has 
been  grown  on  wheat  since,  one  might  almost  say,  time 
immemorial. 

Wheat,  as  all  the  agricultural  world  knows,  absorbs  the 
nitrogen  from  the  soil  on  which  it  is  grown  ;  while  alfalfa,  on 
the  other  hand,  absorbs  nitrogen  from  the  air  and  deposits  it 
in  the  soil.  These  two  crops  are  therefore,  as  was  found  out 
long  ago  in  North  America,  naturally  complementary.  And  a 
course  of  alfalfa  prepares  ground  for  the  replanting  of  wheat 
in  a  way  unequalled  by  the  most  expensive  artificial  fer- 
tilizers. The  time  will  therefore  doubtless  come  when 
Argentine  farmers  will  plough  up  such  of  their  alfalfa  as  may 
be  on  suitable  ground  and  plant  wheat  thereon  ;  and, 
contrariwise,  will  plough  up  their  wheat  and  give  the  ground 
two  or  three  years  of  alfalfa  before  putting  wheat  on  it 
again. 

But  this  is  still,  to  the  vast  majority  of  Argentine  farmers, 
an  absurdly  impracticable  counsel  of  perfection.  Since,  does 
one  think,  he  asks,  that  he  is  going  to  spoil  his  alfalfa  fields, 
soon  after  seeing  them  pass  through  the  critical  stage  of  their 
tap-roots  reaching  water,  and  break  his  ploughs  into  the 
bargain  by  cutting  those  thick,  tough  roots  up  again  ? 
Not  he.    Alfalfa  it  is  now  and  alfalfa  it  is  going  to  remain  ; 


AGRICULTURE  225 

to  yield  him  four  or  even  more  cuttings  annually.  Only 
time  and  ever-growing  land  values  will  force  this  kind  of 
reasoning  out  of  his  mind.  He,  in  the  more  distant  parts  of 
the  country  at  all  events,  is  still  in  the  stage  of  mentality 
when  what  were  good  enough  methods  for  his  forefathers  are 
good  enough  for  him.  Nature  has  been  kind  to  him.  He  has 
always  reaped  much  benefit  from  little  labour  or  capital 
outlay  ;  and  this  state  of  things  suits  his  nature  so  well  that 
he  is  altogether  disinclined  to  vary  it  by  following  theories 
which  do  not  appeal  to  him,  be  they  preached  never  so  wisely 
by  the  ambulant  Agricultural  Instructors  employed  by  the 
Government  to  travel  about  the  country  and  teach  improved 
methods  to  its  rural  inhabitants.  The  deaf  ear  which  even 
the  very  well-to-do  among  what  may  be  called  the  peasant 
proprietors,  the  little-educated  rural  classes,  that  is  to  say, 
turn  to  the  teachings  of  modern  science  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  these  people  have  long  been  too  much  spoilt  by  nature's 
gifts  of  highly  fertile  soil  and  favourable  climate  to  perceive 
any  very  pressing  need  to  bestir  themselves  to  unaccustomed 
expenditure  of  energy  or  money. 

Thus,  as  is  told  elsewhere  in  these  pages,  thousands 
of  head  of  cattle  and  sheep  die  each  time  a  drought  occurs 
simply  because  their  owners  will  not  go  to  the  trouble  and 
expense  of  boring  for  water  (seldom  far  from  the  surface) 
and  putting  up  windmills  to  draw  it. 

Education  and  economic  pressure  will  in  due  course  end 
this  era  of  dolcc  far  nicnte  ;  which  is  doomed  to  disappear 
from  even  the  most  outlying  of  rural  districts  as  surely  as 
the  traditional  Manana  has  from  the  business  communities 
of  the  great  cities.  Nowadays,  a  denizen  of  Buenos  Aires 
who  scents  a  good  stroke  of  business  will  pursue  and  capture 
it  with  a  rapidity  and  real  vigour  which  would  not  shame 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  Only,  the  Argentine  will 
always  conceal  his  haste  under  an  affected  outburst  of 
boisterous  humour  or  an  equally  assumed  dilatoriness  of 
manner.  He  will,  in  fact,  be  politer  about  it  than  the 
15 


226    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Northerner.  But  he  will  get  there  all  the  same.  So  will  the 
agriculturist,  comparatively  untutored  as  he  still  often  is, 
once  he  realizes  his  own  advantage  in  the  matter  ;  as 
circumstances  eventually  will  force  him  to  do. 

Just  now  the  River  Plate  countries  are  faced  with  an 
exceptionally  acute  phase  of  the  problem  of  their  increased 
agricultural  expansion ;  the  governing  factor  of  that 
problem,  indeed  the  whole  cause  of  it,  being  their  lack  of 
adequate  rural  population. 

To  appreciate  this  inadequacy  one  must  realize  that  the 
Argentine  Republic  alone  is  only  a  very  little  smaller  than 
Germany,  Austro-Hungary,  Belgium,  Denmark,  France, 
Holland,  Italy,  Norway,  Sweden,  Portugal  and  Switzerland 
put  together  ;  while  her  population  is  only  some  7,500,000. 
Of  this  over  a  million  is  in  the  city  of  Buenos  Aires  ;  and 
the  other  cities  such  as  Rosario,  Bahia  Blanca  and  the 
Provincial  capitals  account  for  another. 

Even  were  the  whole  7,500,000  equally  spread  over  the 
Republic,  we  should  only  get  an  average  of  6-5  per  square 
mile,  as  against  some  193  per  square  mile  as  the  average  of 
the  other  countries  named  above  for  comparison  of  area. 
Uruguay  has  a  considerably  larger  population  (and,  it  may 
be  added,  railway  mileage),  to  the  square  mile  than  Argen- 
tina ;  but  even  then  it  has  only  some  1,200,000  inhabitants, 
or  about  half  the  number  possessed  by  the  Province  of 
Buenos  Aires. 

Unless  this  state  of  things  be  remedied,  it  would  appear  as 
if  the  hitherto  rapid  advance  of  both  agriculture  and  stock- 
breeding  in  these  countries  must  soon  reach  a  point  beyond 
which  they  can  no  further  go  for  want  of  hands  to  sow,  reap 
and  carry  crops  and  rear  and  tend  cattle  and  sheep  !  This 
situation  is  not  a  perfectly  new  one  in  modern  economic 
history  ;  but  it  may  safely  be  called  new  in  degree  when  it  is 
found  in  countries  where  all  other  natural  conditions  are 
normally  so  entirely  favourable  to  uninterrupted  rural  pro- 
duction.    In  countries  not  (as  yet  at  all  events)  directly 


AGRICULTURE  227 

involved  in  Armageddon  ;  and  while  so  much  of  the  rest 
of  the  world  urgently  needs  every  grain  of  wheat  and  every 
ounce  of  meat  they  can  possibly  send  out. 

Great  irrigation  works  now  in  progress  will  open  up 
further  vast  and  almost  unprecedentedly  fertile  areas  for 
cultivation  ;  which  areas  railway  lines  are  practically  ready 
and  waiting  to  serve  with  transport  and  for  which  new  ports 
are  in  course  of  construction  while  existing  ones  are  being 
enlarged  and  improved.  New  agricultural  laws  have  been 
passed  to  meet  difficulties  which  have  arisen  with  already 
increased  production  and  land  values  ;  everything  in  fact 
has  been  done  and  is  being  done  to  second  and  enhance 
nature's  gifts. 

But  the  question,  "  Where  are  the  human  beings  necessary 
to  an  advantageous  result  of  and  to  benefit  by  all  these 
preparations  ?  "  still  remains  unanswered  ;  except  by  the 
apparently  very  stubborn  fact  that  they  have  not  yet 
appeared  on  the  River  Plate  and  show  no  signs  of  doing  so. 

At  the  present  moment  the  outlook  from  this  state  of 
things  reveals  only  a  tangled  problem,  in  view  of  the  awful 
wastage  of  human  life  now  going  on  in  Europe.  But  for  its 
occurrence  and  continuance  before  the  war  the  Governments 
of  Argentina  and  Uruguay  are  almost  wholly  to  blame,  and 
that  of  the  former  country  in  much  the  greater  degree.  This 
because,  while  Uruguay  may  be  said  to  have  only  just 
emerged  from  a  long  period  of  internal  political  disturbance 
which  necessarily  absorbed  all  the  time  and  energies  of  her 
statesmen,  Argentine  politics  long  ago  reached  their  destined 
haven  of  sunlit,  calm  waters. 

Argentina  has  spent  much  trouble  and  money  in  propa- 
ganda ;  in  all  sorts  of  publications  giving  true  and  therefore 
favourable  statistics  of  her  ever-increasing  rural  industries, 
trade  and  prosperity.  But — and  this  cannot  be  insisted  on 
too  often  for  her  own  good  and  for  Uruguay's  example — she 
has  never  even  seemed  to  trouble  herself  about  suitable 
people  who  might  be  attracted  by  the  perusal  of  her  statistics 


228    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

and  pamphlets  to  wish  to  know  more  of  her  and  of  their 
exact  individual  prospects  did  they  decide  to  set  sail  for  her 
shores. 

Like  so  many  of  the  good  laws  and  schemes  in  which 
this  country  abounds,  everything  concerning  prospective 
colonists  is  excellently  arranged  and  set  down  on  paper  ; 
but  nothing  is  yet  in  really  practical  working  order  for  the 
reception  and  assignment  of  land  to  the  real  colonist,  the 
man  most  needed  in  new  countries,  bringing  with  him  a 
small  capital  which  he  wishes  to  invest  in  a  holding  which 
will  be  the  future  home  of  himself  and  his  family. 

It  seems  a  hard  saying,  but  I  hold  it  truth  that  the  only 
provision  yet  made  has  been,  and  is,  for  the  reception  and 
despatch  upcountry  of  the  very  poorest  class  of  immigrants  ; 
glad  to  get  a  job  at  manual  labour  of  any  kind,  and  therefore 
at  the  mercy  of  the  landowners  who  still  really  govern  this 
pretendedly  ultra-democratic  Republic. 

It  is — whether  accidentally  or  of  set  purpose  is  needless  to 
discuss  here — in  point  of  fact  through  the  influence  of  landed 
proprietors,  and  through  their  influence  alone,  that  the 
elaboration  and  putting  into  practice  of  existing  coloniza- 
tion schemes  and  laws  lie  fallow  ;  while  poor  immigrants,  by 
a  seemingly  cynical  courtesy,  called  "  Colonists,"  are  granted 
the  privilege  of  a  share  in  any  immediate  profits  to  be 
derived  from  breaking  up  virgin  soil  from  which  they  will  be 
turned  off  practically  as  soon  as  it  begins  to  yield — to 
commence  a  similar  operation  elsewhere  if  they  care  to — 
under  conditions  which  leave  them  little  choice. 

Congress  and  the  National  Provincial  Governments  are 
to  blame  for  this,  really  suicidal,  scandal ;  resulting  from  a 
condition  of  things  so  patent  that  the  Italian  labourers  who 
come  for  the  harvest  return  back  home  again  to  an  existence 
of  probably  considerable  hardship  in  Italy,  in  preference  to 
remaining  as  "  Colonists  "  under  the  blue  and  white  banner 
of  Liberty. 

The  root  of  all  this  is  that  the  Argentine  cannot  bring  him- 


AGRICULTURE  229 

self  to  part  with  the  ownership  in  land,  and  the  fact  of  his 
having  done  so  in  the  past  still  rankles  bitterly  in  his  mind  ; 
forgetful  of  the  fact  that  then  that  was  the  only  way  to 
interest  foreign  capital  in  the  development  of  his  country. 

The  conclusion  is  that,  if  he  will  not  and  does  not  give  land 
to  colonists,  he  will  find  that  his  prosperity  has  reached  stick- 
ing point  for  want  of  labour  to  advance  it  any  further. 

That  is  to  say,  the  agricultural  production  of  Argentina 
has  almost,  if  not  quite,  reached  the  limits  of  the  power  of 
the  Republic's  seven  million  inhabitants. 

"  The  case  for  the  Colonist  "  has  been  put  with  such 
admirable  accuracy  by  Mr.  Herbert  Gibson,  in  a  recent 
pamphlet  by  him  called  The  Land  we  Live  on,  that  the 
present  writer  has  been  unable  to  resist  the  temptation  to 
cite  some  passages  from  it  at  length.  A  temptation  enhanced 
by  Mr.  Gibson's  faculty  for  hitting  exactly  the  right  nails 
on  the  head  coupled  with  his  command  of  a  vividly  virile 
style. 

Mr.  Gibson  is  a  member  of  a  family  of  very  large  land- 
owners in  Argentina  ;  a  man  of  exceptionally  high  moral 
and  intellectual  qualities,  and  an  accepted  and  respected 
authority  on  all  matters  concerning  Argentine  rural  in- 
dustry ;  the  best  interests  of  which  he  has  done  much  to 
advance,  often  at  his  own  considerable  pecuniary  cost. 

A  born  Argentine,  he  can  lay  bare  to  the  public  eye  the 
weaknesses  and  faults  of  the  agricultural  systems  of  the 
Republic  in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  impossible  to  a  foreigner 
without  a  strong  likelihood  of  the  latter  doing  much  more 
harm  than  good  to  the  cause  of  reform  by  what  would 
probably  be  deemed  by  Argentines  a  gratuitously  offensive 
advocacy. 

It  should  rather  befall  the  man  who  cries  to  the  shoeblacks 
and  hotel  waiters  of  the  city,  than  to  us  who  are  of  the  land,  to 
plead  the  cause  of  the  colonist.    But  let  us  state  his  case  for  him. 

An  examination  of  the  meteorological  conditions,  the  con- 
stitution of  the  soil,  the  economy  of  inland  collection,  and  the 


230    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

average  proximity  of  the  radial  point  of  export  to  the  site  of 
production  has  usually  convinced  the  intelligent  traveller,  very 
especially  if  his  intelligence  is  engaged  in  ocean  or  land  transport, 
that  the  Argentine  is  the  garden  of  the  world. 

A  closer  examination  of  the  abruptness  of  the  thermographical 
curves  and  their  relation  to  soil  foods  and  the  growth  and  harvest 
of  its  products ;  the  difficulty  of  collecting  from  units  of  large 
area,  and  at  the  precise  moment  of  their  maximum  yield  and 
maturity,  the  seeds  of  annuals  ;  the  yet  unbridged  gulf  between 
the  field  of  production  and  the  main  channels  of  its  collection  ; — 
might  well  lead  the  intelligent  traveller  to  a  contrary  conclusion. 
When  he  ceased  to  generalize  he  would  find  the  lot  of  the  agri- 
culturist was  not  as  easy  as  it  looked. 

Burmeister  no  doubt  overstated  the  case  if  he  said  that  wheat 
would  never  prosper  in  the  Pampa  soil.  If  he  said  that  wheat 
cultivation  would  not  prosper  in  the  Pampa  except  under  skilled 
husbandry  we  could  find  it  easy,  after  twenty  years'  experience, 
to  agree  with  him. 

Meantime  the  best  has  been  done  to  make  it  unsuccessful. 
The  agriculturist,  if  we  are  to  call  him  one,  is  let  loose  on  a 
five  hundred  acre  pitch  of  the  prairie.  In  so  many  cases  that  one 
is  entitled  to  generalize,  he  set  out  on  borrowed  land  with 
borrowed  implements  to  scratch  the  soil  for  three,  four  or  five 
years  and  sow  wheat  on  it. 

If  he  is  asked  whether  he  sows  winter  or  spring  wheat  he  does 
not  know.  If  he  is  asked  how  many  tons  of  straw  he  harvests, 
he  neither  knows  nor  cares.  If  he  is  asked  what  calcium  carbonate 
and  nitrate  are,  he  thinks  they  are  sheep  dips,  but  is  not  quite 
sure.  If  he  is  questioned  on  rotation,  he  waves  his  hand  to  the 
rolling  Russian  thistle  that  gathers  like  a  snowdrift  against  every 
obstacle. 

His  house  is,  at  best,  an  enlarged  sardine  tin.  He  has  neither 
barn,  byre  nor  pigsty.  He  has  no  enclosures  for  cattle,  sheep 
or  poultry.  He  has  no  garden.  He  has  not  a  single  tree  to  shelter 
him  from  the  sun.  With  land  suited  for  every  form  of  five  stock 
and  field  farming  he  is  enslaved  to  the  deadly  monotony  of  wheat 
growing. 

There  may  be  countries  with  a  soil  and  climate  such  that 
white  straw  crops  can  be  grown  for  a  large  number  of  years  in 
succession  without  exhausting  the  land  or  setting  up  soil  sickness. 
We  know  it  is  done  at  experimental  farms  such  as  Rothamsted. 
But  we  know  too  that  the  efficiency  of  soil  culture  in  pursuit  of 


AGRICULTURE  231 

these  experiments  is  beyond  the  practical  ability  of  the  colonist ; 
nor  is  the  economy  of  the  farm  an  item  that  is  taken  into  con- 
sideration. We  know,  because  we  have  witnessed  it,  that  in 
this  country  after  the  colonist's  term  of  four  or  five  years, 
during  which  he  has  collected  an  average  crop  of  eight  bushels 
per  acre,  is  ended,  what  remains  is  a  five  hundred  acre  field  of 
weeds. 

We  can  grow  weeds.  Whatever  other  merits  may  be  denied 
to  us  we  have  achieved  the  production  of  a  garden  of  weeds 
without  equal  in  the  world.  Some  of  them  are  good  plants  for 
animal  food,  but  out  of  place,  for  the  colonist  has  not  the  means 
to  make  use  of  them  for  that  purpose.  Others  are  weeds  of 
the  most  useless  and  noxious  description.  If  it  be  true  that 
the  scabby  Argentine  sheep  has  been  a  source  of  wealth  to 
European  chemical  manufacturers,  the  day  must  surely  come 
when  still  greater  fortunes  will  be  made  out  of  weed-spraying 
nostrums. 

Until  this  agricultural  arab  whom  we  call  a  colonist  is  replaced 
by  an  occupant  with  permanent  or  sufficiently  long  fixity  of 
tenure  ;  until  he  has  adequate  barns,  byres,  sties,  water  sweet 
and  cheap,  a  garden  and  a  homestead  ;  and  until  he  is  possessed 
of  cattle,  sheep,  swine  and  poultry  he  will  remain  as  economically 
lean  and  weak  as  the  muzzled  ox.  We  have  talked  much  of 
rural  banks  to  enable  him  to  borrow  more  money  ;  but  we  have 
not  begun  to  put  into  practice  the  rural  economy  that  will  be 
followed  by  the  rural  bank  as  sure  as  summer  follows  spring. 
When  the  agriculturist  profits,  instead  of  loses,  on  the  year's 
overturn,  he  will  build  up  the  bank  on  his  own  thrift. 

Within  the  economy  of  soil  cultivation  there  is  room  for  two 
alternatives  only.  Either  the  landowner  must  himself  farm  his 
land,  or  he  must  lease  it  with  sufficient  fixity  of  tenure  and  farm- 
ing equipment  to  secure  to  his  tenant  the  prospect  of  being  able 
to  pay  a  fair  rent. 

Agriculture  in  this  country  has  very  largely  failed  through 
an  attempt  to  drive  a  middle  course  between  these  two  alterna- 
tives. The  landowner,  usually  one  possessing  a  large  area  and 
hitherto  a  pastoralist,  has  seen,  or  has  thought  he  saw,  a  larger 
profit  to  be  earned  by  turning  his  soil  to  agriculture.  Instead  of 
putting  it  to  the  test  by  turning  agriculturist,  he  has  paid  his 
intelligence  the  sorry  compliment  of  believing  that  an  illiterate 
Italian,  spewed  up  on  our  shores  may  be  a  year  since,  could  earn 
this  large  profit  if  he  were  let  loose  upon  the  prairie  without 


232    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

further  capital  or  assistance  than  the  right  to  plough  the  soil, 
in  exchange  for  a  share  of  the  harvest,  to  be  dehvered  threshed 
and  bagged  to  his  landlord. 

The  benefits  the  landlord  has  derived  from  this,  in  a  great 
majority  of  cases,  have  been  to  collect  a  smaller  rent  than  he 
could  have  earned  if  he  had  depastured  or  farmed  the  land 
himself ;  and  to  receive  back  at  the  end  of  three  or  four  years 
his  pasture  land  converted  into  a  garden  of  weeds.  The  process 
is  termed  "  improving  the  land  by  the  plough."  Not  long  since 
properties  in  the  market  were  advertised  as  especially  attractive 
if  they  were  "  all  under  agriculture." 

Having  sowed  the  wind  the  landlord  is  reaping  the  whirlwind. 
He  has  not  only  failed  to  profit  by  agriculture,  but  he  has  pledged 
the  land  and  squandered  the  proceeds.  The  matter  is  not  that 
such  silly  methods  of  rack-renting,  bonanza  farming,  land  gutting 
and  money  lending  have  wrought  their  own  confusion.  It  is 
the  loss  to  the  industrial  community,  to  the  rural  population, 
and  to  the  national  thrift  that  lays  bare  the  defects  of  the  system. 
These  are  the  fruits.  We  have  to  look  into  the  ordering  of  our 
agricultural  industry,  not  as  determined  by  a  "  good  year  "  or 
"bad  year,"  a  "  dry  "  or  "  wet  "  year,  but  by  such  a  readjust- 
ment of  our  rural  economy  that  the  soil  shall  be  no  longer 
cultivated  at  a  loss.  It  is  necessary  to  unmuzzle  the  ox.  Without 
the  aid  of  domestic  live  stock  the  colonist  can  neither  profit 
from  the  by-products  and  fallow  of  the  land,  nor  can  he  restore 
to  the  soil  the  factors  necessary  to  yield  crops  that  are  of  them- 
selves profitable. 

Neither  have  we  been  careful  to  conserve  and  stimulate  the 
settlement  of  a  truly  agricultural  population  on  the  land.  We 
have  exported  the  cult  of  sterility  from  the  old  world  to  the  new. 
We  have  measured  in  this  new  world  a  field  of  production,  not 
for  the  labourers,  but  for  their  European  mandatories.  It  was 
said  in  the  days  of  the  Spanish  dominion  that  America  was  the 
"  factoria  "  of  the  mother  country.  She  has  seemingly  not  yet 
ceased  to  be  regarded  as  a  "  factoria." 

We  take  pride  that  we  export  so  much  and  need  so  little. 
We  call  it  a  favourable  "  balance  of  trade."  We  spread  abroad 
pamphlets  and  graphic  charts  and  dreary  columns  of  ciphers  to 
show  how  successfully  we  have  gutted  the  land  we  live  on  to  fill 
alien  mouths.  We  display  pictures  of  train  loads  of  labour- 
saving  machinery,  glorying  in  the  fact  that  one  man  aided  by 
Pittsburg  steel  and  Cardiff  coal  can  fend  off  twenty  families 


AGRICULTURE  283 

from  a  thousand  acres,  and  garner  the  yield  for  the  con- 
tentment of  fat-handed  brokers  eating  lobsters  in  a  distant 
city. 

Had  the  matter  been  understood  rightly  by  the  "  estanciero  " 
of  a  generation  or  two  ago,  nay,  even  by  this  present  generation, 
he  would  have  put  a  premium  on  fecundity.  His  business  was 
to  encourage  population  ;  but  while  he  drowsed  in  siesta  hour 
over  the  newspaper  proclaiming  the  arrival  of  alien  immigration 
and  smiling  unctuously  at  the  intelligence,  he  condemned  his 
own  men  to  celibacy,  unwilling  to  spend  the  price  of  five  bullocks 
on  a  mud  hut  to  cradle  the  generation  on  his  own  land  of  a  race 
of  lusty  yeomen.  He  took  pride  in  the  number  of  calves  and 
Iambs  born  on  his  estate.  It  would  have  beseemed  him  better 
to  take  pride  in  the  number  of  babies  born  there. 

Such  a  consummation  would  be  vastly  upsetting  to  Malthusian 
economists  who  view  with  jealousy  the  peopling  of  new  fields 
of  production.  They  would  have  us  believe  that  it  is  only  here 
by  the  overflowing  of  the  Nile,  and  there  by  the  discovery  of  the 
New  World,  that  the  human  race  has  been  saved  from  famine. 
If  we  can  no  longer  send  350,000  tons  of  meat  and  five  million 
tons  of  cereals  to  the  Old  World  our  usefulness  has  passed  away 
and  our  mission  ended. 

Fiddlesticks  !  Had  the  Pampas  of  South  America,  the  pasture 
lands  of  Australia,  and  the  wheat  fields  of  Canada  remained 
virgin  there  would  have  been  ere  now  thousands  of  acres  in  Great 
Britain  under  glass  and  harnessing  the  solar  spectrum  and  the 
electric  currents  of  air  to  manufacture  food  for  the  people. 
Feminists,  instead  of  rending  other  people's  gamients  to  bewail 
the  departure  of  their  mankind,  would  be  conjuring  out  of  four- 
inch  potsherds  fruit  rich  and  rare  for  the  household.  If  among 
the  social  economists  of  the  present  generation  there  is  a  dis- 
position to  revert  to  the  Malthusian  creed  ;  in  this  spacious 
country,  and  as  far  as  the  vegetative  population  is  concerned, 
there  is  no  need  to  raise  the  voice  of  alami.  National  progress 
and  thrift  will  be  soonest  achieved  by  the  increase  of  the  national 
population  ;  and,  without  closing  the  doors  to  useful  alien  immi- 
gration, the  welfare  of  the  community  should  be  dependent 
rather  upon  the  increase  of  the  family  than  upon  the  overflow 
population  from  other  lands.  .  .  .  Under  our  present  system 
of  agriculture  the  domestic  requirements  of  the  country'  are 
sacrificed  to  foreign  demand.  We  measure  our  progress  by  our 
export  trade  of  raw  produce.    When  we  speak  of  agriculture  what 


234    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

we  really  mean  is  the  production  of  maize,  wheat  and  linseed  for 
shipment  abroad. 

It  is  to  this  end  that  so  much  has  been  heard  of  warrants, 
elevators  and  other  devices  to  enable  the  farmer  to  dispose  of 
his  crop.  They  are  in  some  degree  devices  for  his  own  security  ; 
but  they  are  in  a  much  greater  degree  devices  to  secure  for  the 
export  of  cereals  a  more  regular  flow  from  the  sources  that  supply 
it.  The  time  is  no  doubt  distant  when  this  country  shall  have 
a  population  sufficient  to  consume  the  raw  produce  of  its  soil  ; 
but  by  turning  our  eyes  constantly  to  its  export  trade  as  the 
sole  source  of  its  production  we  have  not  only  limited  the  lines 
of  our  agricultural  production,  but  we  have  neglected  comple- 
mentary lines  that  would  have  increased  that  export  trade  by 
maintaining  soil  values. 

The  cereal  that  gives  the  best  return  from  a  large  area  of  our 
Pampa  soil  and  climate  is  barley.  Being  shallow-rooted  our 
indifferent  tilth  suffices  for  its  seed  bed  ;  and  being  short  lived 
it  can  be  sown  late  and  harvested  early,  reducing  the  risks  from 
frost  and  drought.  The  "  chacarero  "  who  produces  8  fanegas 
of  wheat  could  produce  on  averages  from  the  same  soil  and  with 
no  better  husbandry  i8  fanegas  of  barley  per  hectare.  In  food 
equivalents  that  is  equal  to  280  kilogrammes  of  pork. 

The  "  chacarero  "  does  not  grow  barley  for  the  same  reason 
that  he  neglects  or  ignores  almost  every  branch  of  agriculture 
except  wheat,  maize  and  linseed.  For  the  same  reason  that  he 
neglects  rotation,  fallow  and  weeds ;  vegetables  and  small 
fruits  ;  live-stock  breeding  and  feeding  ;  poultry,  dairy,  and  bee- 
hiving,  tree  planting  ;  and  the  greatest  of  all  cultures — home 
culture.    He  has  no  fixity  of  tenure.    There  is  no  other  reason. 

It  is  said  of  the  Argentine  "  chacarero  "  that  he  is  ignorant 
and  incapable  of  good  husbandry.  When  he  first  began,  of 
course,  he  was  ignorant.  The  gold  medallist  from  an  Agricultural 
College  is  ignorant  when  he  begins  to  practise  farming.  Though 
the  farmer's  craft  engages  the  whole  cyclopaedia  of  science,  and 
there  is  no  limit  to  the  knowledge  it  demands,  its  practice  is 
essentially  one  of  observation  and  local  experience.  To  those 
the  "  chacarero "  comes  as  well  equipped  as  another.  His 
ignorance  is  but  the  reflection  of  his  environment. 

It  is  also  said  of  him  that  he  is  greedy,  and  undertakes  a  larger 
area  than  he  can  cultivate.  Again,  his  greed  is  but  the  reflection 
of  the  landowner's.  He  is  called  to  the  land  on  terms  that  ex- 
clude all  fixity  of  tenure,  maintenance  of  soil  values,  small 


AGRICULTURE  235 

farming,  rotation  or  live-stock  values  ;  terms  that  merely  bind 
him  to  plough  as  best  he  can  a  given  area,  to  seed  it  in  cereals 
that  will  enable  his  landlord  to  collect  without  inconvenience 
his  rent  in  kind,  delivered  "  dry,  sound  and  bagged  "  at  the  foot 
of  the  threshing  mill ;  to  continue  this  process  for  three  or  more 
years ;  and  at  the  end  of  his  term  to  go  to  the  devil  if  his  un- 
success  has  not  already  landed  him  in  that  quarter. 

In  a  scheme  of  agriculture  that  was  to  take  no  heed  of  the 
permanent  thrift  of  the  land  and  the  man  who  tilled  it  we  have 
failed  ;  as  we  deserved  to  fail,  most  miserably.  We  have  built 
upon  this  most  uncertain  apex  as  a  base,  an  inverted  pyramid 
by  which  ocean  and  land  carriers,  merchants,  brokers,  specula- 
tors, and  every  branch  of  parasite  commerce  were  to  wax  lustily. 
We  may  devise  as  we  will  rural  credits,  schools  of  agriculture, 
prophets  of  agrarian  science,  bellowing  from  the  tail-end  of  peri- 
patetic railway  coaches,  grants  of  seed,  warrants,  elevators, 
labour-saving  machinery,  and  every  other  panacea  to  nurse  the 
sick  field  labourer.  Until  we  give  him  fixity  of  tenure  he  will 
continue  to  be  a  sick  man.  There  has  been  no  other  solution  to 
agricultural  problems  of  the  past.  There  can  be  no  other  solution. 
Our  present  rural  population,  concentrated  on  less  than  the 
present  area  they  are  engaged  in  cultivating,  with  continuity  of 
usufruct  or  compensation  for  improvements  secured  to  them, 
would  produce  a  larger  cereal  harvest  than  they  now  do,  and  add 
to  the  wealth  of  our  animal  produce,  and  still  more  to  the  accumu- 
lation of  our  national  thrift. 

In  Uruguay  progress  is  still  possible  to  the  existing  popu- 
lation ;  since  the  consequences  of  the  civil  disturbances  which 
until  recently  paralysed  the  production  of  this  country,  by 
the  constant  commandeering  of  men,  horses  and  supplies  by 
one  or  other  of  the  combatant  parties,  have  not  yet  been 
overcome  by  the  existing  settlers  who,  therefore,  still  have 
work  ready  to  their  hands.  Nevertheless,  for  Uruguay  also 
it  is  a  case  of  the  more  the  merrier  ;  more  available  labour, 
more  rapidly  increased  agricultural  output.  Once  means  are 
found  for  an  appreciable  and  constant  increase  of  the  popu- 
lation of  these  countries,  immediate  results  of  such  increase 
may  be  expected  not  only  from  their  production  of  Cereals, 
Live  Stock  and  the  "  Secondary  "  products  already  enumer- 


236    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

ated,  but  also  from  coffee,  chicory,  tea,  arrowroot,  sugar-beet, 
sweet  sorghum,  hops,  cinnamon,  vanilla  and  very  many 
others,  for  the  cultivation  of  all  of  which  favourable  con- 
ditions are  to  be  found  in  one  or  other  of  the  various  climates 
found  between  the  many  degrees  of  latitude  traversed  by  the 
length  of  Argentina  and  the  various  altitudes  between  the 
Argentine  Andine  frontier  line  and  the  sea. 

At  the  same  time  much  could  be  done  for  their  own 
comfort  and  prosperity  by  farmers,  in  the  ample  time  which 
their  chief  occupations  necessarily  leave  them,  by  the  culti- 
vation of  some  of  these  secondary  products  for  their  and 
their  neighbours'  use.  At  present  their  almost  unaccountable 
neglect  to  do  so  justifies  an  obiter  dictum  of  the  great  Argen- 
tine statistician.  Dr.  Francisco  Latzina,  in  a  Monograph  by 
him  attached  to  the  last  Argentine  agricultural  Census. 

"  It  seems  to  me,"  Dr.  Latzina  says,  "  that  the  Ministry 
of  Agriculture  ought  to  take  a  decided  initiative  in  en- 
couraging horticulture  which,  as  we  see,  does  not  supply 
the  National  demand.  To  add  to  the  climax,  even  eggs  are 
imported  in  this  year  of  grace.  If  this  goes  on,  the  day  will 
come,  perhaps,  when  bread  and  milk  shall  be  imported  in 
order  to  be  able  to  export  all  the  wheat,  flour  and  butter 
produced  in  the  country."  (By  "  horticulture  "  Dr.  Latzina 
means,  in  this  connection,  the  produce  of  the  Kitchen 
garden.) 

It  is  a  fact  that,  as  he  says  elsewhere  in  the  same  Mono- 
graph, garlic  and  onions,  peas  and  beans  figure  among  the 
imports  of  a  country  possessing  millions  of  acres  of  fertile 
land  !  While  the  farmer  frequently  buys  his  potatoes  at  the 
Store.  This  neglect  on  his  part  of  everything  which  does  not 
savour  of  export  is  one  of  the  factors  of  dear  living  in  Argen- 
tina. Uruguay  is  on  a  somewhat  different  footing  in  this 
regard,  her  rural  population  having,  as  has  already  been 
indicated,  still  about  as  much  as  it  can  do  in  making  good 
the  ravages  of  past  Revolutions. 

Still  Uruguay  sends  vegetables   to   Buenos  Aires,  and 


AGRICULTURE  237 

Uruguayan  housewives  complain  of  the  high  prices  of 
Kitchen  stuff  which,  consequently,  now  rule  in  the  Monte- 
vide  an  markets. 

A  very  large  proportion  indeed  of  the  whole  of  the  Re- 
public of  Uruguay  may  be  considered  as  cultivable.  In 
Argentina  the  question  of  hov/  much  of  the  whole  area  of 
that  country  may  be  so  considered  is  yet  without  exact 
solution. 

In  this  regard  therefore  it  may  be  well  again  to  quote  Dr. 
Latzina,  who  says  : — ^ 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  even  approximately  the  cultivable 
area  of  Argentina,  because  hitherto,  and  yet  for  some  time  to 
come,  the  extent  covered  by  mountains,  deserts,  salt  marshes, 
sand-hills,  swamps,  moors  and  lagoons,  and  the  Patagonian 
table-lands,  which  are  almost  entirely  uncultivable — not  so 
much  so  on  account  of  the  poor  soil,  but  on  account  of  the 
want  of  water  and  the  boisterous  and  continuous  winds  which 
blow  incessantly  day  and  night  in  those  parts.  A  calculation 
such  as  I  wish  to  make  can  only  be  roughly  made,  and  I  may 
say  that  I  doubt  if  the  cultivatable  area  of  Argentina  be  greater 
than  half  its  total  area — in  round  numbers,  150,000,000  hec- 
tares. 

Dr.  Latzina  then  suggests  the  reservation  of  two-thirds 
of  that  area  for  stock-breeding,  leaving  only  50,000,000 
hectares  for  pure  agriculture. 

However,  hardly  one-half  of  this  last-mentioned  area  is  as 
yet  under  cultivation  ;  leaving  plenty  q^  room  for  the 
present  for  the  extension  of  agriculture. 

This  fact  of  very  large  areas  within  the  Territory  of  the 
Argentine  Republic  being,  chiefly  for  climatic  reasons  (e.g. 
the  more  southern  and  the  mountainous  parts  of  Patagonia) , 
unfit  for  either  cultivation  or  pasturage,  except  in  the  latter 
regard  for  goats  and  perhaps  the  very  roughest  kinds  of 
sheep,  should  not  be  lost  sight  of  when  comparing  Argentina 
with  Uruguayan  statistics.    One  eminent  Uruguayan  Agri- 

^  Monograph  attached  to  National  Census,  igog. 


238    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

cultural  Authority,  for  instance,  has  triumphantly  referred 
(in,  it  must  be  considered,  a  more  patriotic  than  strictly 
scientific  spirit)  to  the  fact,  as  stated  by  him,  that  the  value 
of  the  Exports  of  Uruguay,  per  square  mile  of  that  Republic's 
territory,  are  double  those,  similarly  reckoned,  of  Argentina. 
Even  accepting  his  figures  as  correct,  which  Argentine 
statisticians  do  not,  the  deduction  he  obviously  suggests  is 
certainly  based  on  fallacious  reasoning ;  indeed,  the  very 
comparison  itself  is  misleading. 

Uruguay  is  a  small,  compact  country  not  two-thirds  the 
size  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  containing  practically 
no  exclusively  mountainous  or  arid  or  otherwise  desert  large 
areas  and  none  of  the  obstacles,  of  distance,  or  other  kinds, 
encountered  by  transport  in  Argentina. 

Truly  some  statistics  suggest  that  their  compilers  believe 
that  "  Figures  can  be  made  to  prove  anything." 

In  connection  with  Agriculture,  locusts  still  unfortunately 
succeed  in  not  letting  themselves  be  forgotten.  From  time 
to  time  vast  swarms  of  these  rapacious  insects  appear, 
covering  and  darkening  the  sky  for  leagues.  They  come  from 
their  breeding  centres,  undoubtedly  somewhere  in  the  huge 
virgin  tracts  in  the  western  tropical  regions  of  Brazil.  Many 
well-meaning  persons  have  counselled  measures  for  their 
extermination  there.  A  counsel  of  perfection,  alas  !  Those 
who  have  preached  have  never  been  even  on  the  frontiers  of 
the  thousands  of  square  leagues  of  tropical  forest  and  under- 
growth which  yet  have  scarcely  ever  heard  the  voice  of 
man.  To  dream  of  exterminating  locusts  there  is  as  if  one 
proposed  to  empty  a  running  stream  with  a  bucket.  An 
impossibility. 

All  that  can  be  done  is  to  attack  and  destroy  the  swarms 
when  they  have  arrived.  For  this  purpose  special  and,  it 
should  at  once  be  said,  very  successful  organization  have  been 
brought  into  existence  by  the  Argentine  National  Govern- 
ment with  the  loyal  concurrence  and  aid  of  the  Provincial 
Governments  and  by  the  Uruguayan  Government. 


AGRICULTURE  239 

At  first  the  Defensa  Agricola,  as  this  organization  is 
called,  encountered  a  good  deal  of  passive  resistance  from 
rural  landowners  who,  doubting  its  efficacy  and  seeing  in  it 
or  affecting  to  see  in  it,  rather  a  means  of  affording  remunera- 
tive jobs  for  Government  hangers-on,  declared  that  its 
officials  who  pervaded  the  country  requisitioning  labour  and 
suppUes  were  a  worse  nuisance  than  the  locusts  themselves. 

The  Defensa  Agricola  continued  its  work,  however,  un- 
heeding of  such  protests  ;  and  now,  for  some  time  past,  may 
be  said  to  have  fully  justified  its  existence  and  its  methods 
by  results  in  both  countries. 

It  has  its  centres  of  observation,  like  any  other  force  pre- 
pared to  repel  invasion,  and,  on  the  coming  of  a  swarm 
being  signalled,  every  human  being  in  its  course  is  called 
upon  to  aid  in  the  defence. 

The  plan  of  this  defence  consists,  briefly,  in  driving  and 
sweeping  the  insects  into  trenches  backed  with  long  lines  of 
sheets  of  corrugated  iron,  placed  together  end  to  end.  Once 
gathered  into  these  trenches  the  locusts  are  burned  ;  and  by 
the  untiring  continuance  of  this  process  they  are  gradually 
destroyed  before  much  damage  (very  small  indeed  com- 
pared with  the  ravages  of  pre-Defensa  Agricola  days)  has  been 
done. 

The  sweeping-up  process  can  be  usefully  employed  for  the 
extermination  of  settled  swarms  otherwise  its  members  will 
quickly  proceed  to  deposit  eggs  which  later  would  hatch  into 
young  "  hoppers "  born  with  infinitely  more  voracious 
appetites  than  even  their  parents  had.^ 

Locusts,  as  has  been  seen,  come  from  the  North  and  in  the 
normal  course  of  their  nature  would  disappear  again  in  that 
direction,  leaving  bare  fields  and  their  hungry  young  behind 
them  in  memory  of  their  visit.    Still  in  recent  years,  before 

^  It  is  to  these  newly  born  "  hoppers  "  that  the  most  rigorous  sweep- 
ing and  burning  is  usually  applied.  They  present  the  greater  facilities 
for  this  treatment,  and  are,  as  has  been  indicated,  more  destructive  than 
their  parents,  who  may  be  said  to  be  at  the  end  of  life's  span  when  they 
arrive. 


240    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

the  full  development  of  the  Defensa  Agricola,  it  appeared 
that  locusts  had  actually  become  acclimatized  in  some 
regions  of  both  Republics,  notably  in  the  Southern  part  of  the 
Province  of  Buenos  Aires  and  in  the  Territory  of  the  Rio 
Negro,  and  therefore  did  not  return  North  but  managed  to 
survive  frost. 

This  last  menace  may  now,  however,  be  considered  as 
past. 

The  Defensa  Agricola  does  not  only  devote  its  attention  to 
locusts.  It  possesses  a  highly  trained  scientific  staff  which 
combats  the  invasions  of  all  the  other  insect  pests  which  from 
time  to  time  threaten  the  crops,  vines  or  fruit  and  other  trees 
and  useful  vegetation.  It  issues  clear  instructions  as  to  the 
treatment  to  be  applied  in  each  case  and  punishes  non- 
compliance with  its  orders  by  fines  which  it  is  empowered  to 
inflict. 

Agriculture  has  much  for  which  to  thank  this  Institution 
in  respect  of  protection  against  pests  ;  the  danger  from  which 
was  increasing  with  the  importation  of  vines  and  fruit  trees 
from  other  countries. 

The  Argentine  organization  is  under  the  direct  control  of 
the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  ^ ;  an  indefatigable  Government 
Department  the  immensely  wide  sphere  of  whose  work  is 
ever  increasing  ;  Division  being  added  to  Division  as  need 
arises  from  the  ever-increasing  number  of  the  branches  of 
National  Industry,  whether  agricultural  or  not.  For  in- 
stance, it  is  only  quite  lately  that  anything  like  complete 
official  statistics  have  been  obtainable  in  relation  to  internal 
manufactures.  The  country  regarded  itself,  as  it  was 
regarded  abroad,  as  purely  agricultural  in  the  broad  sense 
including  Live  Stock  production.  Now  these  statistics  are 
regularly  issued  by  the  "  Division  of  Commerce  and  In- 
dustry "  so  admirably  directed  and  watched  over  by  Senor 
Ricardo  Pillado  ;  a  veteran  the  list  of  whose  valuable 
economic  services  to  the  State  dates  from  the  financial 

1  In  Uruguay,  the  Ministry  of  Industries  is  concerned  with  all  agricul- 
tural matters. 


AGRICULTURE 


241 


renaissance  which  followed  the  disastrous  year  1891  ;    in 
which  renaissance  he  played  a  very  leading  part. 

Sefior  Pillado  was  largely  instrumental  in  the  devising  and 
carrying  into  execution  of  the  drastic  financial  remedies 
rendered  necessary  by  the  culminating  abuses  of  the  Juarez 
Celman  regime  ;  and  it  is  to  his  practical  and  patriotic 
genius  that  the  Argentine  statistical  diagrams  and  many 
other  statistics  of  that  country  reproduced  in  this  book  owe 
their  existence  and  annual  reappearances  in  the  simple  and 
striking  forms  which  is  their  very  salient  feature, 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ARGENTINE  AGRICULTURE, 
I 896-1 91 3 

CULTIVATED   AREAS   IN   HECTARES* 


Years. 

Wheat. 

Linseed. 

Maize. 

Lucerne. 

Other 
cultivations. 

Total. 

1896 

2,500,000 

360,000 

1,400,000 

800,000 

510,000 

5,570,000 

1897 

2,600,000 

350,000 

1,000,000 

900,000 

522,000 

5,372,000 

1898 

3,200,000 

332,788 

850,000 

1,067,983 

533.000 

5.983,771 

1899 

3,250,000 

355.329 

1,009,000 

1,268,088 

545.000 

6,427,417 

1900 

3.379,749 

607,352 

1.255.346 

1,511,601 

557.000 

7,311,048 

I901 

3,296,066 

782,880 

1.405.796 

I.63I.733 

567,000 

7.638,475 

1902 

3-695.343 

1,307,196 

1,801,644 

1.730,163 

580,270 

9,114,616 

1903 

4,320,000 

1,487,000 

2,100,000 

2,172,511 

606,000 

10,685,511 

1904 

4,903,124 

1,082,890 

2,287,040 

2.503.384 

648,000 

11,424,438 

1905 

5.675.293 

1,022,782 

2,717,300 

2,983,643 

682,443 

13,081,461 

1906 

5,692,268 

1,020,715 

2,851,300 

3.537.2II 

796,099 

13.897.593 

1907 

5.759.987 

1. 391.467 

2,719,260 

3,612,000 

1,129,078 

14,612,792 

1908 

6,063,100 

1.534.300 

2,973.900 

3,687,200 

1,572,063 

15.830,563 

1909 

5,836,500 

1.455.600 

3,005,000 

4.706,530 

3,772,042 

18,775,672 

1910 

6,253,180 

1,503,820 

3.215.350 

5,400,580 

3,994,152 

20,367,082 

I911 

5,897,000 

1,630,000 

3,422,000 

5,630,100 

4.304.589 

21,883,689 

1912 

6,918,450 

1.733.330 

3,830,000 

5,955,000 

4.550,946 

22,987,726 

I913 

6,573.540 

1.779.350 

4,152,000 

6,690,100 

4.896,736 

24,091,726 

*  1000  hectares=386i  square  miles,  and  1  hectare  =2*47 11  (or  a  little 
less  than  2i)  acres. 


16 


242 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


EXPORTS   OF  PRINCIPAL   ARGENTINE   AGRICULTURAL 
PRODUCTS,  1875-1913 


Years. 

Oats. 

Linseed. 

Maize. 

Hay. 

Wheat. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

1875 



,_ 

3.714 

107,517 



1876 

— 

— 

136,986 

105,496 

997 

1877 

— 

— 

166,889 

219,570 

7.333 

1878 

— 

7,107 

290,088 

130,648 

105.350 

1879 

— 

20,338 

501,857 

105,625 

1.328,692 

1880 

— 

95.485 

288,275 

184,695 

46,747 

1881 

— 

604,387 

541.058 

37,283 

11,111 

1882 

1.650,043 

2.I4I.I35 

132.683 

66,864 

1883 

— 

1.153.087 

372,804 

137.531 

2,430,184 

1884 

- — 

1.699,582 

2,274.201 

142.153 

4,339,970 

1885 

— 

3.471.305 

3.957.I9I 

165,587 

3.139,736 

1886 

— 

1,825,199 

4.653.421 

149,414 

1.510,378 

1887 

— 

4,066,409 

7.236,886 

148,506 

9,514,635 

1888 

— 

2. 131. 813 

5,444,464 

238,308 

8,248,614 

i88g 

— 

1,607,162 

12,977,721 

572.153 

1,596,446 

1890 

— 

1,228,825 

14,145,639 

198,866 

9,836,824 

1891 

— 

732,798 

1,384,088 

420,058 

23.733.312 

1892 

— 

2,546,220 

8,561,231 

374.428 

14,696,089 

1893 

19.504 

2,887,975 

1.578.545 

638,640 

23.459.926 

1894 

29,489 

3.583,459 

1,046,007 

456.386 

27,118.142 

1895 

228.875 

8,287,112 

10,193,338 

432,657 

19,471.652 

1896 

38.389 

6,856,106 

15.994,556 

899,781 

12.830.027 

1897 

18,110 

4,996,288 

5.478.718 

933.716 

3.470.351 

1898 

20,929 

5,420.031 

9,274.197 

1,246,849 

22,368,900 

1899 

88,493 

7,402,488 

13.042,983 

1,158,825 

38.078.343 

1900 

127,249 

10,674,011 

11.933.747 

1,282,620 

48,627.653 

1901 

47.139 

16,513,263 

18.887.397 

961,576 

26.240,733 

1902 

503.465 

17,840,952 

22.994,060 

1,004,133 

18,584.894 

1903 

514.267 

21,239,894 

33.147.249 

1.033.244 

41,323.099 

1904 

541.973 

28,359,923 

44,391,196 

616,287 

66,947,891 

1905 

334.349 

26,233,851 

46,536,402 

801,219 

85,883,141 

1906 

1,117,184 

25,915,861 

53,365.687 

1,169,089 

66,561,181 

1907 

3.593.397 

36,081,221 

29.653.979 

769,505 

82,727,747 

1908 

9.697,716 

49,004,704 

41,556,865 

599,937 

128,842,610 

1909 

10,115,161 

43.713.358 

58,374.430 

580,853 

106,038,940 

1910 

8.142,575 

44,604,395 

60,260,804 

478,228 

72,202,260 

1911 

11,666,291 

33.579,990 

2,766,597 

679.425 

80,675,066 

1912 

21,858,517 

34,213,565 

108,908,193 

307,112 

97.835.174 

1913 

20.447,278 

49,910,201 

112,292,394 

312,590 

102,631,143 

Totals 

89.150,350 

500,158,408 

766,754.992 

19.933.193 

1,252.532.157 

i 

17.688,561 

99,237.780 

152,133.927 

3.955.000 

248.518,285 

DEVELOPMENT   OF   ARGENTINE   AGRICULTURE 


AGRICULTURE 


245 


EXPORTS  OF  PRINCIPAL  ARGENTINE  AGRICULTURAL 
PRODUCTS,   1875-1913  {continued) 


Quebracho. 

Wheat  Klour, 

Bran. 

Totals. 

Years. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

Extract. 
$  gold. 

Logs. 
$  gold. 

$  gold. 

1875 

1,188 

2,138 

— 

— 

114.557 

1876 

33.069 

4,928 

— 

— 

281,476 

1877 

20,419 



— 

— 

414.213 

1878 

300,282 

63,802 

— 

— 

897,277 

1879 

160,304 

58,070 

— 

— 

2.174,886 

1880 

100,695 

44.353 

— 

10,121 

770,371 

1881 

105,832 

37,439 

— 

11,016 

1,348,126 

1882 

39,i8S 

28,320 

— 

— 

4.058,233 

1883 

343.099 

43,647 

— 

— 

4,480,352 

1884 

261,406 

58,948 

— 

— 

8,776,260 

1885 

521,295 

87,482 

— 

— 

11.342,596 

1886 

362,807 

40,105 

— 

— 

8,541,324 

1887 

378,076 

62,921 

— 

5.095 

21,412,528 

1888 

639,244 

33,132 

— 

172,700 

16,908,275 

1889 

510,853 

69,082 

— 

485.357 

17,818,774 

1890 

600,894 

28,337 

— 

826,508 

26,865,893 

1891 

361,230 

110,929 

— 

1,245,628 

27,988,043 

1892 

1,024,041 

290,849 

— 

617,811 

28,110,669 

1893 

1,318,590 

243.403 

— 

1,265,942 

31,412,525 

1894 

1,019,931 

211,551 

— 

962,687 

34,427,652 

1895 

1,882,366 

249,830 

40,167 

1,778,814 

42,564,811 

1896 

1,949,556 

708,738 

68,419 

832,718 

40,178,290 

1897 

2,411,719 

747.551 

120,474 

1,356.744 

19.533.671 

1898 

1.592,495 

767,972 

119,224 

1,882,604 

42,693,201 

1899 

1,938,281 

922,916 

317.156 

I. 593. 761 

64,543,246 

1900 

1,718,085 

1,163,120 

595.701 

2,398,362 

78,520,548 

I901 

2,711,298 

1,454.428 

431,004 

1,989.195 

69.236,033 

1902 

1,603,568 

1,726,562 

909,904 

2,477.233 

67,644,771 

1903 

3,128,525 

1,894.693 

1,204,049 

2,002,010 

105,487,030 

1904 

4,757,248 

2,409,250 

2,011,130 

2,527,227 

152,562,125 

1905 

5.373.699 

3.051. 155 

2,427,772 

4,275,164 

174,916,752 

1906 

4.477.964 

3,249,888 

2,162,949 

3.425.101 

161,444,904 

1907 

4.696,934 

4,552,332 

1,811,878 

3,132,493 

167,019,486 

1908 

5.133.335 

4,698,879 

2,994,922 

2,962,184 

245,491,152 

1909 

5,594,852 

4.483,317 

4,226,333 

4.380,033 

237.507.277 

I910 

4.947.137 

4,521,783 

4.429.357 

5.604,430 

205,190,969 

I911 

4,739,421 

4,612,292 

4,980,027 

6.897,435 

150,596,544 

I912 

6,926,280 

5.940,579 

4,836,860 

3.568,557 

284,394.837 

I913 

7,224,029 

4.740.184 

4.974.686 

4-988,349 

307,520,854 

Totals 

80,909,235 

53,414.905 

38,662,012 

63,675.279 

2,865,190,531 

^^16,053,419 

10,598,195 

7,671.034 

12.633,983 

568,490,184 

246    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

The  total  value  of  the  Agricultural  Exports  during  1914 
was  some  $200,000,000  (gold),  but  recovery  was  made  in 
1915  to  some  $320,000,000  (gold)  during  the  latter  year. 

The  Argentine  harvests  of  1915-16  are  estimated  in 
round  figures  at : 

Wheat       ......     5,500,000  tons 

Linseed      ......      1,300,000     ,, 

Oats  ......     1,360,000     ,, 

The  Maize  crop  is  as  yet  unascertained  at  the  time  of 
writing. 

The  corresponding  Uruguayan  figures  are  as  yet  un- 
obtainable. The  Statistical  Department  of  this  Republic 
was  reorganized  in  1912,  but,  no  doubt,  has  had  to  cope 
with  enormous  arrears.  Still  it  is  regrettable  that  authori- 
tative statistics  regarding  this  country  are  difficult,  when  not 
impossible,  to  obtain. 

In  1 91 3  Uruguay  exported  agricultural  products  of  the 
value  of  I  (Uruguayan)  1,857,000.  400,000  hectares  in  Uru- 
guay were  under  wheat,  a  slightly  less  area  under  maize  ;  the 
cultivation  of  oats  was  increasing  rapidly,  and  that  of  barley 
slowly. 

As  has  already  been  mentioned,  the  present  (1915-16) 
harvests  are  reported  as  generally  splendid  in  both  countries 
though  labour  presents  a  serious  problem,  as  do  freights  and 
scarcity  of  ships  for  export.  Such  complications  have  been 
prevalent  and  are  likely  to  prevail  throughout  the  war. 

THE   SOIL 

Naturally,  the  soil  of  such  a  vast  area  as  that  covered  by 
the  two  Republics  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay  is  varied  to  an 
extent  with  which  a  book  like  the  present  cannot  attempt 
to  deal  adequately.  The  greatest  feature  is,  however,  the 
celebrated  Pampean  formation  which  obtains  over  the  whole 
of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  the  greater  parts  of  the 
Provinces  of  Santa  Fe,  Cordoba,  San  Luis  and  Mendoza,  the 
National  Territory  of  the  Pampa  Central,  the  Republic  of 


AGRICULTURE  247 

Uruguay,  and  extends  southwards  beyond  the  Argentine 
Rio  Negro.  In  many  places  on  this  formation  there  are 
also  later  alluvial  deposits. 

The  lightest  soils,  those  with  the  smallest  proportion  of 
clay  and  consequently  the  loosest,  are  found  in  the  West, 
near  the  Andes. 

Starting  from  the  most  sandy  western  region,  the  soil 
grows  more  and  more  compact  towards  the  east,  along  the 
River  Parani,  the  South  of  the  Province  of  Santa  Fe  and 
most  of  the  Republic  of  Uruguay,  the  Northern  part  of  the 
Province  of  Buenos  Aires  (where  rather  heavy  soils  pre- 
dominate) ;  while  in  the  South  and  South- West,  that  is  to 
say  the  southern  portion  of  the  Province  of  Cordoba,  the 
National  Territory  of  the  Pampa  Central  and  the  central 
and  southern  part  of  the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  the  soil 
is  of  lighter,  though  firmer  consistency,  than  that  of  the 
western  part. 

The  generally  salient  qualities  of  the  Pampean  soil  are 
richness  in  humus,  deficiency  in  lime  and  good  proportions 
of  nitrogen  and  phosphoric  acid.  A  characteristic  feature  of 
the  subsoil  is  stratified  layers  of  more  or  less  calcareous  con- 
cretions known  as  tosca  (tufa  or  tophos  stone) .  This  layer 
is  sometimes  deep  down  ;  but  in  the  southern  region  of  the 
Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  beginning  at  Tandil  and  Azul,  it 
reaches  nearly  to  the  surface,  so  as  to  appear  immediately 
under  the  soil,  thus  forming  a  waterproof  subsoil  impene- 
trable by  roots. 

The  present  writer  has  seen  wheat  growing  on  less  than 
an  inch  of  soil  above  the  tosca ;  the  roots  spreading  out  at 
right  angles  to  the  stalks. 

These  layers  of  tosca  or,  in  other  parts,  clay,  are  of  great 
importance  for  holding  water  ;  seldom  at  any  great  distance 
from  the  surface. 

On  low  and  level  plains  when  the  soil  is  light  or  loose, 
chains  of  sandhills  are  formed  by  the  prevailing  winds.  Some 
of  these  are  kept  stationary  by  quick-growing  vegetation- 


248    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

while  others  are  constantly  shifting.  The  shifting  sandhill 
is,  however,  fast  disappearing  in  consequence  of  the  ad- 
vances of  pastoral  industry  ;  for,  and  by,  which  they  are 
becoming  fixed  by  herbaceous  growth. 

The  tosca  and  clay  subsoils  have  in  many  parts  occasioned 
the  formation  of  lagoons  and  swamps  ;  the  waters  of  which 
are,  usually,  at  least  brackish  and  often  salt.  A  white  or 
grey  efflorescence  seen  in  these  swamps  is  locally  called  salt- 
petre, but  in  fact  it  only  contains  slight  traces  of  nitre. 

Towards  the  extreme  North  of  the  Province  of  Entre  Rios 
and  the  Republic  of  Uruguay  red  soil  heralds  one's  approach 
to  subtropical  or  tropical  vegetation. 


G 


CHAPTER   XII 

LIVE   STOCK 

ENERAL  MITRE,  in  his  History  of  Belgrano,  has 
said  of  the  River  Plate  Territories  : — 


The  natural  pastures  invited  the  inhabitants  to  the 
pastoral  industry.  The  vast  littoral  placed  the  country  in  contact 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  by  means  of  fluvial  and  maritime  naviga- 
tion. Its  salubrious  and  temperate  climate  rendered  life  more 
pleasant  and  work  more  reproductive.  It  was  indeed  a  territory 
prepared  for  live-stock  breeding,  constituted  for  commercial  pros- 
perity, and  predestined  by  acclimatization  to  be  peopled  by  all  the 
races  of  the  earth.  Thus  we  see  that  the  profitable  occupation  of  its 
soil  commences  to  be  realized  by  nieans  of  live  stock  brought  over- 
land from  Peru  and  from  Brazil ;  that  the  commercial  currents 
of  the  interior  converge  little  by  little  towards  the  River  Plate  ; 
that  abundance  and  well-being  are  spread  by  this  means ;  and 
that  the  first  external  act  of  the  colonists  after  the  foundation 
of  Buenos  Aires  in  1580  is  the  exportation  of  a  shipload  of  the 
fruits  of  their  own  work  (hides  and  sugar),  which  awakens  immi- 
gration and  the  commerce  of  importation. 

This  reference  to  the  "  commerce  of  importation  "  is  an 
indication  of  the  limitations  under  which  the  colonists 
laboured  under  Spanish  rule.  They  might  import  from 
Spain  as  much  as  they  could,  but  a  very  jealous  guard  was 
put  on  their  exports  lest  these  might  compete  with  the 
industries  of  the  Mother  Country. 

Seventy-two  horses  and  mares  were  landed  by  Pedro  de 
Mendoza  when  he  founded  the  first  settlement  of  Santa  Maria 
de  los  Buenos  Aires  in  1535.  Many  of  his  follo\vcrs  were 
killed  by  the  native  Indians,  but  when  Juan  de  Garay  coming 

249 


250    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

down  through  Paraguay  laid  the  real  foundations  of  the 
present  capital  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  he  and  those  with 
him  were  surprised  to  find  wild  horses  grazing  on  the  Pampa. 
These  were  the  descendants  of  those  brought  by  Mendoza 
and  the  ancestors  of  the  present  equine  stock  of  the  River 
Plate  countries,  a  stock  which  has,  however,  in  common  with 
all  the  live  stock  of  these  countries,  been  improved  out  of 
all  recognition  in  the  course  of  the  last  half-century  by  im- 
ported European  strains.  Still  the  wild  descendants  of 
Mendoza's  animals,  acclimatized  through  countless  genera- 
tions and  become  hardy  in  their  free  life,  were  no  bad  raw 
material  to  improve  upon. 

The  first  appearance  of  cattle  on  the  River  Plate  Pampa 
is,  as  has  already  been  mentioned,  credited  to  seven  cows 
and  a  bull  said  to  have  been  brought  from  Brazil,  through 
Paraguay,  by  two  Portuguese,  the  brothers  Cipriano  and 
Vicente  Goes,  early  in  the  last  half  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
but  other  cattle  were  introduced  in  far  larger  quantities 
about  the  same  time  or  a  little  later  under  the  conditions  of 
the  appointment  of  Juan  de  Galazary  Espinoza  as  Treasurer 
of  the  River  Plate.  To  Nunflo  de  Chaves  is  credited  the 
honour  of  the  introduction  of  the  first  goats  and  sheep  in 
1550. 

Evidently  large  numbers  of  horses,  cattle  and  sheep  after- 
wards strayed  in  a  semi-wild  condition  down  south  from  Peru 
and  Brazil,  attracted  by  the  wealth  of  pasturage. 

The  early  history  of  the  export  trade  of  the  River  Plate 
colonists  in  hides,  tallow,  wool  and  jerked  beef,  is  one  of 
smuggHng  and  bribery  of  officials.  Nevertheless,  even  under 
such  difficult  circumstances  and  costly  methods  many 
settlers  contrived,  by  also  trading  in  European  merchandise, 
to  amass  great  wealth,  the  fortunes  of  many  of  them,  says 
Mr,  Gibson,  amounting  to  over  £60,000  sterling. 

Meanwhile  the  increase  of  cattle  was  astounding  if  one  did 
not  consider  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  its  utilization.  In 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  anyone  could  take  all 


LIVE  STOCK  251 

he  wanted  from  the  wild  herds  up  to  10,000  or  12,000 
head,  or  more  by  obtaining  Hcence  to  do  so  from  the 
Governor. 

The  rights  of  free  export  of  animal  produce  from  Buenos 
Aires  to  Spain  and  open  trade  with  the  interior  were  first 
granted  to  the  River  Plate  Colonies  in  1778,  under  the  Vice- 
Regal  rule.  But  it  was  the  Independence  of  the  Colonies  in 
1810  which  freed  them  from  all  commercial  trammels  and 
was  the  real  commencement  of  their  present  agricultural  and 
pastoral  prosperity.  Since  then  no  events  (except,  of  course, 
the  advent  of  the  railway  in  1857)  in  the  annals  of  the  export 
commerce  of  the  River  Plate  have  been  of  greater  importance 
than  the  founding  of  the  Argentine  Rural  Society  in  1866, 
and  the  discovery  by  Tellier  of  the  preservation  of  meat  at 
freezing  point  submitted  to  the  Paris  Academy  of  Science  in 
1872,  and  of  Ferdinand  Carre's  improvements  for  the  trans- 
port of  chilled  meat. 

The  first  freezing  establishment  in  the  River  Plate  was 
that  erected  by  Sefior  Eugenio  Terrasson  at  San  Nicolds,  in 
the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires,  in  1883,  and  in  the  following 
year  the  legislature  exempted  frozen  and  chilled  meat  from 
the  payment  of  export  duty. 

Over  99  %  of  the  whole  exports  of  frozen  and  chilled  meat 
from  Argentina  comes  direct  to  the  United  Kingdom,  ^  and  we 
get  quite  one-half  of  the  whole  of  our  overseas  meat  and 
grain  supplies  from  the  two  River  Plate  Republics. 

The  past  half-century  has  seen  amazing  changes  on  the 
vast  pasture  lands  of  Argentina  and  Uruguay.  The  first  of 
these  was  the  invasion  of  what  had  formerly  been  the  ex- 
clusive domains  of  cattle  and  sheep  by  agriculture.  Little  by 
little,  wheat,  especially,  ousted  the  flocks  and  herds  from  an 
ever-increasing  radius  from  the  port  of  Buenos  Aires.  Land 
values  increased  as  agriculture  flourished  till  the  time  came 
when  stock-breeders  found  themselves  outbidden  by  wheat- 

'  At  present  most  of  these  supplies  go  direct  to  Havre  for  the  use  of 
the  allied  troops. 


252    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

growers  or,  rather,  landowners  found  it  more  profitable  to 
grow  wheat  or  maize  on  lands  which  were  economically 
accessible  to  transport.  As  the  railways  grew  so  did  this 
almost  exclusively  cereal  area. 

This  tendency  continued  until  what  may  almost  be  termed 
the  "  discovery  "  in  the  River  Plate  Territories  of  the 
qualities  of  Alfalfa  (Lucerne). 

The  double  value  of  this  crop  as  fodder  and  for  improving 
the  land  by  collecting  and  depositing  atmospheric  nitrogen, 
caused  it  to  be  planted  by  every  intelligent  estanciero,  and 
brought  back  much  of  the  cattle  to  properties  which  had 
seemed  for  ever  given  over  to  wheat-growing.  Other 
contemporary  reasons  for  the  reappearance  of  cattle  on  the 
home  lands  were  the  increased  demand  for  good  slaughter 
animals  initiated  by  the  newly  established  cold-storage  and 
export  business  and  dawning  appreciation  of  the  fact  that 
one  cannot  for  ever  go  on  growing  immediately  successive 
crops  of  wheat  on  the  same  land. 

Thus  were  laid  some  foundations  of  scientific  farming  on 
more  civilized  lines,  in  which  stock-raising  and  agriculture 
combine  for  the  profit  of  the  farmer.  The  cattle  industry 
and  horse-breeding  also,  gained  fresh  impetus  from  the 
abundance  of  alfalfa  now  grown  everywhere  on  a  large  scale 
and  on  brackish  land  formerly  considered  valueless. 

Sheep  only,  with  their  nomadic  nature  wliich  demands 
large  areas  on  which  to  roam,  their  close-cropping  manner 
of  grazing  and  their  faculty  for  quickly  ruining  alfalfa  fields 
on  which  they  may  be  allowed  to  graze,  are  still  only  found 
in  comparatively  small  numbers  on  the  high-priced  lands  of 
the  East-Central  parts  of  Argentina  and  the  South  of 
Uruguay,  being  chiefly  relegated  to  outlying  districts  in 
which  land  is  still  of  comparatively  small  value  and 
particularly,  in  Argentina,  to  those  parts  of  Patagonia 
the  inclement  chmate  of  which  suits  them  as  it  does  little 
else. 

Nevertheless,  the  finest  breeds  of  sheep  are  chiefly  to  be 


LIVE  STOCK  253 

found  on  the  "  model "  estancias,  where  as  good  Hve  stock  as 
any  in  the  world  is  bred  and  intensive  farming  has  begun  to 
be  appreciated  for  its  own  sake  and  on  account  of  the 
normally  ever-increasing  value  of  land  in  all  the  most 
fertile  and  accessible  rural  districts  of  the  River  Plate 
Republics. 

Durhams  and  Lincolns  are  the  favourite  breeds  of  cattle 
and  sheep,  though  many  fine  strains  of  Herefords,  Polled 
Angus,  Merinos,  Romney  Marsh  and  Shropshires  abound. 
No  price  is  too  high  for  the  Argentine  estanciero  to  pay  for 
imported  animals  for  the  still  greater  perfection  of  his  stock, 
and  the  great  Show  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  Rural 
Society  at  Palermo,  a  park-like  suburb  of  the  city  of  Buenos 
Aires,  comes  as  a  revelation  to  each  expert  breeder  who 
travels,  as  many  do  every  year,  from  Europe  to  the  River 
Plate  to  see  it.  Money  and  care  can  do  no  better  anywhere  in 
the  production  of  animals  of  the  very  highest  quality.  It 
may  be  noted  that  the  prizes  (always  awarded  by  impartial 
foreign,  usually  British,  judges)  are  more  frequently  gained 
by  native  Argentine  breeders. 

River  Plate  live  stock  suffers  very  little  indeed  from  any 
of  the  diseases  which  are  the  breeder's  dread  in  most  other 
countries  ;  with  the  exception  of  sheep  and  pigs,  the  former 
being  greatly  subject  to  "  fluke  "  and  the  latter  to  fever. 
Horse-breeding  is  carried  on  very  successfully.  The  carriage 
horses  exported  by  Sehor  Martinez  de  Hoz  and  others  are 
now  well  known  in  Europe  and  the  race-courses  of  Argentina 
and  Uruguay  are  the  constant  scenes  of  the  display  of  very 
fine  horse-flesh  indeed.  That  Argentine-bred  race-horses  are 
more  successful  in  South  America  than  freshly  imported  ones 
is  no  doubt  due  to  climatic  causes.  Argentine  race-horses 
are  here  specified  because  horse-breeding  has  been  brought 
to  a  higher  pitch  of  perfection  in  Argentina  than  has  yet 
been  attained  in  Uruguay. 

Poultry  and  pig  farming  may  yet  be  said  to  be  in  their 
infanc}^  in  both  Republics,  simply  because  both  countries  are 


254    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

still  quite  fully  occupied  with  the  two  great  established 
industries  of  producing  grain  and  meat  for  export. 

Given  adequate  population  (how  often  must  one  ring  the 
changes  on  this  phrase  !)  very  many  rich  sources  of  prosperity 
would  quickly  be  disclosed  to  now  almost  unsuspecting 
European  eyes.  Poultry  and  pigs  are  two  of  the  richest, 
and  the  most  obvious  for  mention,  in  this  chapter,  of  such 
almost  latent  sources. 

The  cold-storage  establishment  at  Zarate,  in  the  Province 
of  Buenos  Aires,  some  years  ago  erected  a  scientifically 
equipped  plant  for  the  curing  of  hams  and  bacon.  But  the 
difficulty  is  yet  to  obtain  sufficient  pigs  of  first  quality  to 
make  the  curing  industry  a  success.  Throughout  the 
temperate  zone  of  South  America  the  climatic  conditions 
are  quite  favourable  to  pig-raising  ;  and  food  in  the  shape 
of  maize  and  alfalfa  is  abundant  at  relatively  small  cost. 
When  pigs  and  poultry  receive  the  care  which  is  now 
acknowledged  to  be  necessary  to,  and  given  for,  the  best 
results  from  cattle,  horses  and  sheep.  River  Plate  poultry 
and  pig  produce  will  loom  large  on  the  markets  of  the  world, 
besides  supplying  a  daily  increasing  local  demand. 

What  has  been  called  the  Alfalfa  region  because  of  the 
astounding  yield  of  that  forage  given  by  its  brackish,  salt- 
petre-impregnated waters  and  sandy  soil,  lies  to  the  West  of 
the  Province  of  Buenos  Aires.  Almost  the  whole  of  the 
two  Republics  are  now,  however,  largely  planted  with 
alfalfa,  the  spread  of  which  has  grown  rapidly  since  the 
several  valuable  qualities  of  that  crop  have  come  to  be 
understood. 

In  many  districts  wheat  has  been  sown  on  wheat  year  after 
year  ever  since  the  booming  times  of  South  American  cereal 
export  began.  So  that  in  many  parts  of  such  districts  the 
soil  can  do  no  more,  and  in  consequence  the  wheat  yield  has 
become  unsatisfactory. 

When  these  districts  cease  entirely  to  be  able  to  yield  any 
wheat  at  all,  someone  will  lay  down  alfalfa  as  an  alternate 


LIVE  STOCK  255 

crop  and  will  find  the  cost  of  having  done  so,  and  of  re- 
ploughing,  say,  three  years  afterwards,  insignificant  com- 
pared with  the  value  of  the  quantity  and  quality  of  wheat  the 
same  land  will  yield  after  that  process  of  alternation  ;  not 
to  mention  the  value  of  the  three  years'  three  or  quite 
likely  four,  annual  crops  of  alfalfa  taken  off  it  during  that 
period. 

This  form  of  intensive  farming  will  probably  be  the 
first  to  become  obligatory,  for  economic  reasons,  on  the 
generality  of  owners  of  land  situated  in  the  chief  cereal 
areas. 

Till  to-day,  landowners  in  these  large  favoured  tracts  have 
grown  wealthy  with  little  trouble  and  no  thought  as  far  as 
purely  agricultural  enterprise,  as  apart  from  stock-breeding, 
is  concerned. 

All  this  is,  however,  a  digression  from  our  present  con- 
sideration of  stock-raising,  except  as  regards  the  increasingly 
intimate  connection  between  stock-raising  and  agriculture 
in  the  most  thickly  populated  districts  ;  for  the  Argentine 
Rural  Statistics  (more  availably  complete  than  those  of 
Uruguay)  show  that  the  much  greater  proportion  of  cattle 
is  in  the  Provinces  of  Buenos  Aires,  Sante  F6,  Cordoba  and 
Entre  Rios  which  are  four  of  the  chief  cereal  areas.  And 
though  there  are  more  cattle  in  the  province  of  Corrientes 
than  in  either  of  the  three  last-named  Provinces,  the  vast 
herds  of  one  of  the  largest  meat-extract  companies  account 
for  much  of  this.  So  that  it  may  be  taken  that  the  Provinces 
of  Buenos  Aires  (represented  by  a  long  way  by  the  highest 
figures),  Santa  ¥6,  C6rdoba  and  Entre  Rios,  with  the  Terri- 
tory of  the  Pampa  Central  in  respect  of  cereals,  are  the 
regions  which,  together,  are  the  richest  in  Live  Stock  and 
cereals  in  Argentina.^ 


*  Uruguay  can  still  be  roughly  divided  into  two  parts  by  drawing  an 
almost  straight  line  from,  say,  Mercedes  on  the  River  Uruguay  to  San 
Vicente  on  the  Atlantic,  the  chief  cereal  areas  lying  south  of  this  line, 
while  the  land  north  of  it  chiefly  carries  live  stock. 


256    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

The  following  interesting  table  of  the  difference  in  numbers 
of  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses  in  1895  and  1908  is  taken  from 
the  Argentine  National  Census  taken  in  the  latter  year,  the 
latest  census  of  the  kind  taken  throughout  the  Republic. 


DIFFERENCE   BETWEEN    1895   AND    1908 
More  (  +  ),  less  (— )  in  1908 


SPECIES 

PROVINCES   AND   TERRITORIES 

CATTLE 

SHEEP 

HORSES 

Federal  Capital  and  the  Island 

of  M.  Garcia  . 

— 

11.538 

— 

7,072 

+ 

7.367 

Buenos  Aires 

+ 

2.605,339 

—  ] 

8,025,479 

+ 

844.568 

Santa  F6  . 

+ 

1,098.439 

— 

1,019,371 

+ 

509,609 

Corrientes 

+ 

1,382,639 

+ 

1.733.462 

+ 

187.039 

Cordoba    . 

+ 

754.554 

— 

602,552 

+ 

579,080 

San  Luis   . 

+ 

98,925 

+ 

314,439 

+ 

67,290 

Tucuman  . 

— 

23.058 

+ 

25.134 

+ 

57.151 

Entre  Rios 

+ 

360,829 

+ 

795.284 

+ 

132,510 

Salta 

+ 

9.398 

+ 

63,670 

+ 

26,115 

Catamarca 

— 

7.357 

+ 

28,899 

+ 

19,050 

Jujuy 

— 

16,337 

— 

62,830 

+ 

8,673 

Mendoza   . 

+ 

61,252 

+ 

120,186 

+ 

51.268 

La  Rioja  . 

+ 

170,603 

+ 

60,025 

+ 

22,986 

Santiago  del  Estero 

+ 

37.350 

+ 

316,978 

4- 

96,668 

San  Juan  . 

+ 

12,629 

+ 

37.237 

+ 

3.458 

Central  Pampa  . 

+ 

65,517 

— 

486,100 

+ 

52.534 

Rio  Negro 

+ 

197,409 

+ 

3.715.067 

+ 

142,875 

Neuquen   . 

+ 

20,022 

+ 

315,528 

+ 

47,680 

Chubut 

+ 

305.051 

+ 

2,076,322 

+ 

152,925 

Santa  Cruz 

+ 

14.778 

+ 

2,018,302 

+ 

28,524 

Fireland    . 

+ 

11.055 

+ 

1,335.186 

+ 

9,910 

Chaco 

+ 

181,327 

+ 

2,318 

+ 

13.163 

Misiones    . 

+ 

24,102 

+ 

3.382 

+ 

10,895 

Formosa   . 

+ 

192,300 

+ 

20,044 

+ 

13.058 

The  Andes 

+ 

905 

+ 

54.133 

+ 

121 

Republic  at  large  . 

+ 

7,415,099 

- 

7,167,808 

+ 

3.084,517 

The  result  of  the  comparison  is  to  show  that  in  the  pro- 
vinces and  territories  of  the  Republic,  the  number  of  cattle 
has  increased  by  7,415,099  head,  and  that  of  horses  by 
3,084,517  head,  whereas  sheep  have  fallen  off  by  7,167,808. 

The  following  are  the  figures  for  Cattle  and  Sheep  re- 
spectively as  calculated  by  Sefior  Emilio  Lahitte,  Director 
of  the  Division  of  Rural  Economy  and  Statistics  in  the 


LIVE  STOCK 


257 


Argentine  National  Ministry  of  Agriculture,  existing  in 
each  Province  and  Territory  of  that  Republic  on  the  31st 
December,  1911. 


CATTLE 

SHEEP 

Federal  Capital      ...... 

14.338 

1,222 

Province  of  Buenos  Aires 

7.045.523 

28,934.475 

„           Santa  Fe 

4,055,624 

1,612,799 

,           Cordoba 

2,251,744 

2.753,773 

Entre  Rios  . 

2,260,018 

6,721,976 

,           Corrientes     . 

5,030,396 

5,937.432 

,           San  Luis 

861,831 

1,565,326 

Santiago  del  Estero 

1,121,374 

1,344,024 

,           Mendoza 

395.327 

.            745.701 

San  Juan 

174.835 

*           191,752 

,           La  Rioja 

600,582 

234.587 

,           Catamarca   . 

382,108 

230,201 

,           Tucuman 

653.458 

234-591 

Salta  . 

892,248 

630,681 

Jujuy 

172,387 

1,128,321 

National  Territory  of  Pampa  Centra 

1 

399.460 

5,751,856 

„             Misiones 

154,328 

24,761 

,,             Formosa 

359,139 

46,397 

,,             Chaco     . 

562,412 

25.052 

Los  Andes 

2,057 

108,523 

Rio  Negro 

379,312 

8,476.993 

Neuquen 

295.770 

1,099,161 

Chubut . 

651. 5" 

5,091,132 

Santa  Cruz 

55.442 

4,946,677 

,,             Tierra  del  Fuego 

14.726 

2,564.073 

Isla  Martin  Garcia  . 

218 

Totals 

28,786,168 

80,401,486 

The  1908  Census  showed  that  more  than  one-fourth  of  the 
whole  cattle  of  the  Republic  were  Durhams,  rather  less  than 
one-sixth  Herefords  and  the  remainder  made  up  of  very 
much  smaller  quantities  of  Polled  Angus,  Dutch,  Red 
Polled,  Jerseys,  Flemish  and  Swiss,  their  numerical  im- 
portance being  according  to  the  order  in  which  they  are  here 
stated,  from  a  total  of  125,829  Polled  Angus  to  3401  Swiss. 

As  has  been  said,  Lincolns  are  still  in  most  favour  among 
sheep,  followed   by   Romney   Marsh  and  other  long- wool 
breeds,  Shropshire,  Hampshire  and  Oxford  Downs,  South- 
downs  and  Rambouillcts  and  Merinos. 
17 


258    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

The  reason  for  the  great  preference  shown  for  Durhams  is 
their  reputation  for  combined  meat-carrying  and  milking 
quahties,  in  which  latter  Herefords  are  relatively  deficient. 
The  dairy  industries  are  already  developing  on  an  important 
scale. 

There  are  practically  no  parts  of  the  River  Plate  Territories 
except  their  forests,  mountains  and  certain  as  yet  unirrigated 
tracts,  such  as  the  Valley  of  the  Rio  Negro,  which  are  not 
naturally  adapted  to  cattle  or  sheep  raising,  or  both,  and  at 
present  Live  Stock  is  to  be  found  in  almost  exclusive  occu- 
pation of  close  on  96,000,000  hectares  out  of  the  calculated 
total  of  300  million  hectares  of  cultivable  land  in  the  Argen- 
tine Republic.  These  figures  are  taken  from  the  1908 
Argentine  Census,  above  referred  to. 

The  parallel  figures  for  Uruguay  are  not  available  in  such 
exact  form  of  statement,  but  it  may  be  taken  that  there  are 
very  few  parts  of  that  country  in  which  cattle  or  sheep  or 
both  are  not  found. 

Diseases  of  live  stock  are,  as  has  been  said,  very  con- 
spicuous by  their  relative  total  absence  in  both  Republics, 
and  farmers  in  both  Argentina  and  Uruguay  are  very  sore 
about  the  sustained  attitude  of  the  British  Government 
which  refuses  to  permit  the  entrance  of  River  Plate  live 
stock  on  the  hoof  into  British  ports.  The  farmers  are  con- 
vinced that  this  refusal  is  due  to  the  influence  of  British 
breeders  who,  while  thus  preventing  what  would  otherwise 
be  a  serious  menace  to  their  own  industry,  yet  benefit  by  the 
South  American  acceptance  of  very  high  priced  animals 
imported  from  Great  Britain  for  stud  purposes.  The  weak 
point  of  this  argument  is,  of  course,  that  such  importation 
of  prize  animals  is  in  no  way  authoritatively  enforced  on  the 
Argentine  or  Uruguayan,  his  obligation  to  purchase  such 
animals  arising  only  from  his  necessity  to  do  so  in  his  own 
best  interests.  The  danger  on  his  side  arises  from  the 
possibility  of  latent  tuberculosis  and  other  disease,  but  this 
he  now  guards  very   effectually  against,   often  at  much 


LIVE  STOCK  259 

pecuniary  loss  to  himself,  by  severe  tests  carried  out  by 
competent  veterinary  surgeons  on  all  imported  animals  and 
the  unhesitating  sacrifice  of  any  found  to  be  infected. 

The  present  writer  is  inclined  to  venture  the  opinion  that 
the  British  Government  might  rely  with  safety  on  the 
certificates  of  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  Government  experts 
of  the  immunity  of  all  cattle  and  sheep  leaving  either 
Republic  on  the  hoof.  It  does,  in  effect,  accept  such  certifi- 
cates in  regard  to  the  condition  of  frozen  or  chilled  carcases  ; 
and,  morality  apart,  it  may  safely  be  taken  that  every 
Argentine  and  Uruguayan  interested  is  much  too  fully  aware 
of  the  importance  to  himself  individually  of  the  countries' 
export  trade  to  risk  the  slightest  laxity  in  connection  with 
the  sure  ascertainment  of  perfect  immunity  from  disease  or 
contagion  of  all  animals  shipped  from  his  Ports. 

As  this  matter  now  stands,  the  British  authorities  refuse 
to  permit  the  importation  of  live  cattle  or  sheep  until  such 
time  as  the  Argentine  or  Uruguayan  Governments  can  give 
assurance  of  the  total  absence  of  disease  in  every  part  of  their 
Republics. 

It  can  easily  be  understood  that  this  practically  postpones 
such  permission  to  the  Millennium,  since  it  is  most  highly 
improbable  that  the  whole  of  such  vast  areas  of  pasturage 
and  the  millions  of  head  of  live  stock  in  Argentina  and 
Uruguay  should  ever  be  without  one  beast  affected  in  more 
or  less  degree  by  any  contagious  disease.  One  day,  probably 
(before  the  Millennium),  other  counsels  will  prevail  with  the 
British  Government  and  the  whole  people  of  Great  Britain, 
as  well  as  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  estancieros  benefit  by 
the  removal  of  the  present  comprehensive  prohibition. 

For  his  stock,  the  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  farmer  does 
not  fear  disease,  that  he  and  his  Governments  can  and  do 
very  efficiently  guard  against,  but  he  does  fear  drought 
which  he  yet  has  only  inadequate  means  to  combat. 

The  streams  of  the  huge  Pampean  flat  are  few  and  far 
between,  and  are  apt  to  dry  up  in  exceptionally  dry  seasons. 


260    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Almost  everywhere  now  the  sky-Une  is  dotted  with  corru- 
gated-iron windmills  which  draw  water  from  surface  or 
artesian  wells.  But  vast  and  costly  irrigation  (and  drainage) 
works  are  needed  before  the  whole  available  pasturage  of 
the  two  Republics  can  defy  the  recurrence  of  times  of  drought 
which  sometimes  much  more  than  decimate  the  live  stock  of 
enormous  districts.  Uruguay  is,  however,  infinitely  better 
provided  with  running  rivers  and  streams  than  Argentina. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  the  native  Argentine  small 
farmer  could  be  got  to  see  the  real  economy  of  outlay  on 
artesian  wells  and  still  in  the  more  illiterate  outlying  Pro- 
vinces are  to  be  found  men  as  yet  unconvinced  in  that  regard. 

One  of  the  agricultural  instructors  which  the  Argentine 
Government  keeps  travelling  all  over  the  country  to  give 
advice  and  instruction  to  farmers  told  the  present  writer 
not  so  very  long  ago  that  he  had  tried  very  hard  but 
without  success  to  persuade  a  man  in  a  remote  corner  of 
Argentina,  whose  stock  was  daily  dying  of  drought,  to  sink 
at  least  one  artesian  well  on  his  property,  and  even  offered 
to  erect  a  windmill  for  him  free  of  all  cost  except  that  of  the 
actual  mill. 

At  last,  one  evening,  the  farmer  consented  to  this  proposal, 
but  the  following  morning  brought  a  cloudy  sky.  Pointing 
dramatically  to  this  he  said,  "  Why  should  I  sink  wells  ? 
See  !  Rain  is  coming."  After  that,  my  friend,  the  expert, 
gave  the  matter  up  in  disgust.  It  was  of  no  use  telling  the 
farmer  that  drought  might  come  again.  Sufficient  for  the 
day  had  been  the  evil  thereof  ;  and,  as  for  future  troubles, 
why  meet  them  half-way  ? 

Uruguay  is  relatively  very  rich  in  sheep,  which  thrive 
well  on  her  undulating  lands,  and  exports  wool  to  the 
annual  value  of  well  over  £4,000,000. 

The  value  of  Argentine  annual  wool  exports  now  totals 
over  £9,000,000, 

The  real  commencement  of  the  pastoral  as  well  as  the 
agricultural  industries  of  the  River  Plate  in  systematized 


LIVE  STOCK  261 

form  was  the  introduction  of  fences  by  a  landowner  named 
Olivera,  in  1838.  As  may  be  conjectured,  the  erection  of 
boundaries  where  none  had  ever  been  before,  on  properties  the 
titles  to  and  limits  of  which  were  of  the  vaguest  description, 
mostly  partook  of  the  nature  of  an  arbitrary  proceeding. 
So  evidently  thought  Manuel  Rozas,  the  tyrant ;  who 
summarily  prevented  Olivera  from  continuing  the  fencing 
the  latter  had  begun  on  his  estancia  "  Los  Remedios," 
although  Olivera's  new  boundaries  were  but  ditches  crowned 
with  quick-set  hedges  of  "  Afiapinday  "  {Acacias  affinis). 

After  the  death  of  Rozas,  however,  in  1844,  an  English 
estanciero,  Richard  Newton,  first  employed  iron  wire  for 
some  of  the  enclosures  of  his  property  ;  and,  later,  another 
landowner,  named  Halbach,  completely  enclosed  the  whole 
of  his  estancia. 

The  founder  of  the  Argentine  Rural  Society,  Dr.  Eduardo 
Olivera,  says  in  one  of  his  agricultural  essays  : — 

To  these  three  men  (Olivera,  Newton  and  Halbach)  the  Re- 
public owes  the  transformation  of  its  pastoral  and  agricultural 
industries. 

It  was  only  after  the  enclosing  of  lands  that  refining  of 
stock  became  possible.  Previously,  a  stock-owner  was 
always  subject  to  invasion  by  stray  animals  (often  in  large 
numbers)  belonging  to  his  neighbours. 

Thus,  as  we  have  seen,  the  first  step,  the  introduction  of 
wire  fencing,  towards  the  present  development  of  the  Live 
Stock  industry  of  the  River  Plate  was  initiated  by  an  English- 
man, and  it  was  another  Enghshman,  Mr.  John  Miller,  who, 
in  1848,  imported  from  England,  for  a  Mr.  White,  the  owner 
of  the  estancia  "  La  Campana,"  Tarquin,  the  first  shorthorn 
bull  ever  seen  on  the  River  Plate. 

Therefore  the  River  Plate  Territories  really  owe  their 
pastoral  development  as  well  as  their  railways  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race. 

Some  ten  years  later  it  became  the  fashion  to  import 


262 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


stallions  of  the  carriage  and  riding  kinds  ;  it  not  being  fore- 
seen that  the  heavier  breeds  would  also  prove  useful. 

Then  came  the  turn  of  sheep-breeding  ;  first  from  im- 
ported Merinos.  Later,  Rambouillets  were  introduced  and  a 
little  later  again  the  Lincoln  began  to  assert  its  right  to  the 
predominance  it  has  since  attained. 

In  1866  the  Argentine  Rural  Society  was  founded  by  a  few 
leading  estancieros.  Still  a  private  society,  its  admirable 
and  constantly  progressive  efforts,  usually  crowned  with 
success,  have  given  it  a  status  which  is  practically  official. 

The  Society  has  a  Registration  Office  which  keeps 
authoritative  Herd  and  Flock  Books  in  which  are  entered 
the  pedigrees  of  all  the  pure-breed  cattle,  sheep  and  horses 
in  the  country  whose  owners  have  applied  for  such  registra- 
tion ;  except  thoroughbred  horses  and  merino  sheep,  the 
breeders  of  which  last  have  not  yet  arrived  at  the  definition 
of  the  purity  of  that  class  of  sheep.  The  walls  of  this  Office 
are  lined  with  the  Herd  and  Flock  Books  of  the  Breeding 
Societies  of  Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies,  and,  as  Mr, 
Herbert  Gibson,  himself  a  prominent  member  of  the  Society, 
tells  us,  "  there  is  not  in  the  whole  world  an  analogous  office 
which  covers  so  diverse  and  numerous  a  registration." 

The  latest  (1908)  official  Argentine  live  stock  Census  gives 
the  following  tables  of,  respectively,  the  importation  of 
pedigree  bulls  and  cows  and  pedigree  rams  and  ewes,  from 
1880  to  1907. 

PEDIGREE  BULLS  AND  COWS 


No.  of 
Head. 

Official 
values. 
$  gold. 

From  the  United  Kingdom 
,,      France    . 

14.624 
583 

3.770,031 
120,724 

Belgium 
„      the  United  States 

325 
169 

75.235 
41,200 

Germany 
„      Chile       . 
„      Italy 
„      Holland 

153 

113 

62 

50 

27,770 
27,034 

9,553 
5.300 

„      Spain 

„      Other  countries 

40 
40 

16,156 

5.700 
13.870 

•       4.492.372 

LIVE  STOCK 


263 


PEDIGREE  RAMS  AND  EWES 


Official 

No.  of 

values. 

Head. 

$  gold. 

From  the  United  Kingdom         .         .    65,724 

3,141,971 

,,      Germany 

3.327       • 

207.833 

„      France    . 

1,184 

60,154 

,,      the  United  States 

502 

33.250 

,,      British  Possessions 

223 

15.500 

„      Belgium 

2og 

19,829 

Australia 

125 

5.100 

,,      Spain 

128        . 

8,165 

„      Italy 

56       . 

540 

„      Holland 

10 

30 

71,488 

•         3.492,372 

Total  value  of  cattle  and  sheep  imported  for  breeding 
purposes  during  the  above  indicated  period  $7,588,780  gold 
— £1,517,756.  These  animals  have  proved  worth  vastly 
more  than  the  prices  paid  for  them. 

Prior  to  this,  in  1858,  the  first  Rural  Show  was  organized 
at  Palermo.  It  was  not  a  success.  As  Dr.  Zeballos  has 
written,  "  It  was  held  in  the  midst  of  public  indifference 
and  passed  utterly  unnoticed  by  the  press."  However, 
it  seems  to  have  only  been  a  sort  of  fair  at  which 
all  kinds  of  other  wares  jostled  some  rural  produce. 
In  face  of  this  fiasco  it  is  not  surprising  that  no  other 
Rural  Show  was  held  until  thirteen  years  later ;  when  a 
really  Rural  Show  was  held  in  the  City  of  Cordoba. 
This  appears  to  have  had  as  much  success  as  was  to  be 
expected  after  taking  difficulties  of  transport  into  con- 
sideration. 

The  real  commencement,  however,  of  the  series  of  great 
annual  shows  now  held  at  Palermo  was  made  by  the  Rural 
Society  in  1875. 

The  chief  live  stock  exhibits  at  these  shows  con- 
sists of — 


264    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Horses.     "  Criollos  "  (native  breed). 
Saddle  and  race  horses. 
Light  draught. 
Heavy  draught  (now  in  the  majority). 

Cattle.     Shorthorn  (in  a  very  large  majority). 
Hereford. 
Polled  Angus. 
Dairy  breeds. 

Sheep.       Merino. 

Lincoln-Merino  crossbreds. 
Lincoln. 
Romney  Marsh. 
Shropshire  Down. 
Oxford  Down. 
Hampshire  Down. 
Leicester. 


The  majority  of  the  sheep  exhibits  are  Lincolns  and 
Merinos. 

Fine  Pigs  and  Poultry  of  all  kinds  are  also  to  be  seen  at 
these  shows,  but  they  are  chiefly  contributed  by  the  wealthier 
estancieros.  As  has  been  indicated,  the  day  of  pig  and 
poultry  farming  on  a  large  practical  scale  has  not  yet 
dawned  on  the  River  Plate. 

Mr.  Herbert  Gibson  shows  us,  in  his  valuable  Monograph 
attached  to  the  Argentine  National  Agricultural  and  Live 
Stock  Census  of  1908,  that  the  coming  of  Cold  Storage 
establishments,  as  well  as  the  increase  of  the  export  trade 
for  animals  on  the  hoof,  was  very  largely  instrumental  in 
securing  the  predominance  of  the  Lincoln  breed,  most  fre- 
quently crossed  with  merino. 

Merino  for  wool  and  Lincoln  for  mutton  ;  and  the  cross 
which  preserves  the  best  qualities  of  both  is  in  effect  the 
guiding  rule  of  the  River  Plate  sheep-breeder  of  to-day. 


LIVE  STOCK 


265 


However,  with  the  coming  of  alfalfa  came  also  the  various 
black-faced  or  Down  breeds  which  mature  quickly  into  fine 
meat  carcases. 

It  may  be  said  that  barbed  wire,  iron  water-drawing  wind- 
mills and  cold  storage  establishments  are  the  chief  inanimate 
supports  of  the  River  Plate  Live  Stock  industries.  Another 
should  be  trees  ;  the  prime  necessity  of  which  to  afford 
shade  for  animals  which  know  no  other  roof  but  the  heavens, 
from  which  a  very  hot  sun  shines  on  the  Pampa  in  summer 
time,  is  not  yet  as  generally  appreciated  as  it  should  be. 
Still  the  planting  of  trees  on  pasture  lands  began  some  years 
ago,  and  only  could  be  wished  to  spread  more  quickly  and 
universally  than  it  has  yet  done. 

One  is  all  too  apt  in  dealing  with  the  River  Plate  Republics 
to  confine  one's  ideas  regarding  them  to  industries  of  a 
magnitude  commensurate  with  the  huge  extent  of  their 
Territories  ;  but  with  the  coming  of  the  real  colonist,  when 
he  does  come,  the  mixed  farming  which,  necessarily  for  his 
own  comfort,  he  will  bring  with  him  will  greatly  enhance 
the  importance  of  milch  breeds  of  cattle,  pigs,  poultry  and 
the  produce  of  the  kitchen  garden  in  the  rural  economy  of 
the  River  Plate. 


ARGENTINE  LIVE  STOCK 
(LAST  CENSUS,  30TH  MAY,  1908) 


Official 

Valuation. 

Number  of 
Head. 

$  currency. 

Equivalent  in  £,. 

Cattle 

29,116,625 

938,685,834 

81,981,295 

Sheep 

67,211,758 

287,359,076 

25,096,863 

Horses 

7.531.376 

205,826,834 

17,976,143 

Mules 

465.037 

22,561,075 

1,970.399 

Swine 

1. 403. 591 

15.672,637 

1.368.789 

Goats 

3,945,086 

8,321,839 

726,798 

Asses 

285,088 

2,854,950 

249,341 

1,481,282,245 

129,369,628 

266 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


EXPORTS  OF  PRINCIPAL   ARGENTINE    ANIMAL   PRODUCTS. 
1885  TO  1913 


YEARS. 

Salted  Horse 
Hides. 
$  gold. 

Dry  Horse 

Hides. 
$  gold. 

Goatskins. 
$  gold. 

Kidskins. 
$  gold. 

Salted  Ox  and 

Cow  Hides. 

$  gold. 

Dry  Ox  and 
Cow  Hides. 

$  gold. 

1885 

682,260 

65,651 

1,081,762 

641,050 

4,488.204 

7,511.919 

1886 

587.271 

86,178 

306,577 

502,040 

3,649,287 

6,267,592 

1887 

523.128 

231,236 

460,140 

699,569 

3.639.095 

8,408,742 

1888 

815,840 

84,745 

585,478 

864,111 

4.584.728 

10,046,281 

1889 

759.588 

77,487 

821,590 

598,677 

5,260,945 

8,448,069 

1890 

519,483 

82,074 

1,023,478 

754,295 

5.I7I.473 

5,759,745 

I89I 

908,912 

146,275 

676,329 

687,851 

3.782,143 

5,049,556 

1892 

380,274 

142,278 

493,647 

593.III 

3.901,454 

6,056,865 

1893 

673.936 

205,186 

392,958 

607,019 

3,073,310 

5,869,157 

1894 

758,393 

287,769 

588,458 

819,045 

3.553.198 

7,045,877 

1895 

1,381,719 

203,652 

648,600 

765,702 

6,332,204 

8,940,950 

1896 

360,109 

141,847 

689,031 

687,928 

4.598.515 

6,600,005 

1897 

515,708 

240,763 

779,750 

652,331 

4.605,572 

8,596,344 

I89S 

522,368 

288,734 

1,282,816 

439,546 

5.I7I.44O 

6,887,596 

1899 

459,824 

233,484 

1,211,087 

541.632 

4,334,832 

8,001,132 

1900 

389,625 

274.428 

770,499 

260,119 

5.285,819 

8,159,542 

I9OI 

390,826 

293.405 

791.745 

304.494 

5,281,756 

8,848,438 

1902 

406,794 

460,906 

823,328 

292,704 

6,384,955 

8,822,302 

1903 

453,237 

424,616 

847.465 

221,996 

5,360,748 

7,787,819 

1904 

507.450 

368,450 

1,078,196 

285,630 

5,367,610 

8,256,351 

1905 

160,799 

444.027 

1,080,305 

264,462 

9.I47.153 

9,929,391 

1906 

68,933 

507.738 

1,116,762 

256,976 

8,458,664 

10,570,124 

1907 

51.691 

261,721 

574.204 

237.055 

8,345,410 

8,175,722 

1908 

18,740 

248,077 

934.174 

184,276 

7,232,842 

8,452,819 

1909 

28,026 

657,009 

1. 124.524 

335.735 

14,214,746 

14,763,693 

I9IO 

15,526 

484.893 

1,001,824 

310,694 

16,953,372 

13,758,036 

I9II 

33,374 

591.748 

998,631 

285,114 

19,642,362 

14.797.653 

I9I2 

23,112 

356,305 

1,231,906 

228,604 

24,844,075 

17,285,501 

I9I3 

20,394 

375,253 

1,162,878 

270,857 

24,543.795 

13.988,905 

Totals 

12,417,340 

8,265,934 

24,578,142 

13,592,623 

228,209,707 

263,086,126 

=  i 

2,463.757 

1,640,066 

4,876,615 

2.696,954 

45,279.703 

52,199,628 

The  average  annual  value  of  the  Live  Stock  products  of 
Uruguay  during  the  five  years  ending  1913  was  839,682,850 
(Uruguayan)  =£8,443,315.  Similarly  with  Cereal  Exports, 
Live  Stock  Exports  dropped  in  1914,  but  have  more  than 


LIVE  STOCK 


267 


EXPORTS 

OF   PRINCIPAL   ARGENTINE   ANIMAL    PRODUCTS. 

E885-1913  {continued) 

Sheepskins. 

Wool. 

Horse  hair. 

Tallow. 

Butter. 

Totals. 

rsARs. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

$  gold. 

1885 

6,267,377 

35,950,111 

1,004,649 

3,489,169 



61,182,152 

1886 

6.350,671 

31,711,604 

775,977 

1,715.158 



51.952,355 

1887 

6,698,408 

32,749.315 

988,643 

788,777 



55.187,053 

1888 

5,610,923 

44,858,606 

1.257.970 

2,140,393 



70,849,074 

1889 

11.386,593 

56,709,774 

1,157.525 

3,297,471 

1,618 

88,519.337 

1890 

6,787,108 

35,521,681 

929,686 

1,996,629 

9,608 

58,555.260 

1891 

4.833.991 

36,037,518 

936,470 

2,391,388 

660 

55,451.093 

1892 

9,618,175 

44,326,060 

790,227 

2,263,729 

3.045 

68,568,865 

1893 

4.158.777 

25,006,348 

829,762 

2,549,763 

8.347 

43.374.563 

1894 

4.915.384 

28,948,933 

996,468 

2,809,450 

5.850 

50,728,825 

1895 

3,711,966 

31,029,522 

1,070,770 

3,807,751 

123,600 

58,016,456 

1896 

4,061,055 

33,516,049 

902,441 

3,179,326 

225,771 

54,962,077 

1897 

4,094,640 

37,450,244 

980,650 

2,656,048 

249,928 

60,721,978 

1898 

6,194,267 

45,584,603 

1.099,465 

2,862,512 

231,626 

70,564.973 

1899 

9.308,535 

71,283,619 

1,129,912 

2,205,593 

294.872 

100,004,524 

1900 

7,472,988 

27,991,561 

1,136,107 

2,803,327 

263,939 

54.809,954 

1901 

7.339.81I 

44,666,483 

1,004,677 

3,902,715 

377.545 

73,201,895 

1902 

8,487,078 

45,810,749 

1,064,646 

6,209,038 

1,277,969 

80,040,469 

1903 

10,132,065 

50,424,168 

1,147,879 

4.755,579 

2,132,056 

83,687,628 

1904 

8,676,025 

48,355,002 

1,025,580 

4,012,083 

2,117,761 

80,050,138 

1905 

9.483.396 

64,312,927 

1,245,788 

5,321,099 

2,157.294 

103,546,641 

1906 

8,513.910 

58,402,771 

1,243,812 

3,482,526 

1,762,130 

94,384,346 

1907 

8,458,030 

59,252,948 

1,280,122 

4,806,835 

1.214.173 

92,657,911 

1908 

5,626,416 

47,246,183 

1. 143.615 

6,030,601 

1,419,867 

78,537,610 

1909 

8,483.993 

59,921,151 

1,368,724 

7.573.230 

2,597.089 

111,067,920 

1910 

8,623,922 

58,847,699 

1. 335.160 

9,536,681 

1,150,610 

112,018,417 

1911 

7,724,872 

50,494,027 

1,581,710 

11,768,900 

558,253 

108,476,644 

1912 

7.657.157 

58,148,664 

2,111,177 

11,314,728 

1,470,682 

124,671,911 

1913 

Totals 

5.586,253 

45,270,016 

2,681,723 

9,944,642 

1.513.758 

105,358,474 

206,263,786 

1,309,828,336 

34,221,335 

129,617,141 

21,068,053 

2,251,148,523 

40,925.354 

259.886,575 

6,789,947 

25,717,686 

4,180,169 

;^446,656,453 

recovered  during  1915.  Evidently,  however,  no  War-time 
Export  Statistics  can  be  taken  as  indications  of  the  true 
productiveness  of  the  countries  concerned. 


268    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

THE   MEAT  TRADE 

The  export  of  Meat  from  the  River  Plate  Territories  is  no 
new  thing  ;  the  first  of  such  exports  being  authorized  by 
Phihp  III  of  Spain  in  1602. 

The  export  under  this  edict  was  entirely  confined  to  jerked 
beef ;  the  salting  industry  only  obtaining  important 
development  considerably  later.  It  was  not  until  1793  that 
we  find  another  Royal  Edict  which  granted  freedom  from 
Export  and  Import  duties  for  the  salted  meat  and  tallow 
of  Buenos  Aires. 

About  three-fourths  of  the  exports  under  these  Edicts 
usually  went  to  Havana  and  the  remainder  to  Spain. 

The  next  development  of  this  industry  was  begun  when 
in  1 841  a  certain  Hipolito  Doinnel  established  a  salting 
factory  at  the  foot  of  the  Cerro  at  Montevideo  ;  at  which  he 
also  manufactured  soap,  candles  and  sulphuric  acid. 

During  all  this  period  the  export  of  hides  was  constantly 
much  greater  than  that  of  meat. 

The  first  mention  of  the  export  of  horse  hair  relates  to  the 
year  1585,  when  from  300  to  400  mares  were  ordered  to  be 
killed  so  that  their  tails  might  be  sent  to  the  Guinea  coast 
to  be  bartered  for  slaves. 

The  first  privilege  or  patent  granted  in  the  now  already 
independent  River  Plate  Territories  for  meat  preservation 
was  granted  by  the  Congress  at  Parana,  in  1854,  to  one 
Samuel  Laffone  Quevedo  for  the  exclusive  use  of  a  machine 
invented  by  him  for  the  preparation  and  pressing  of  salted  beef. 

Further  experiment  in  preservation,  by  either  heat,  cold 
or  in  a  vacuum,  led  to  many  local  patents  being  granted  for 
various  processes  from  the  year  1867  onward,  to  the  present 
day  in  fact ;  in  respect  of  alternative  systems  or  suggested 
improvements  of  those  generally  in  use. 

The  historic  beginning,  however,  of  the  present  River 
Plate  Meat  Industry  was  made  in  the  year  1877  in  the  spring 
of  which  La  Frigorifique  and  in  the  autumn  of  which  La 
Paraguay,  specially  fitted  boats,  sailed  from  Buenos  Aires 


LIVE  STOCK  269 

with  cargoes  of  meat  preserved  by  the  freezing  and  chilHng 
systems  discovered  by  Mr,  Charles  TeUier. 

Thus,  while  in  the  past  the  River  Plate  Territories  ex- 
ported only  sun-dried  meat  for  the  slaves  on  the  Brazilian 
and  Havana  sugar  plantations,  now  they  supply  meat  to  the 
most  highly  civilized  and  exacting  countries  of  the  world. 

The  free  export  of  frozen  meat  was  sanctioned  by  the 
Argentine  Congress  in  1884,  two  years  after  the  first  of  the 
existing  cold  storage  establishments  in  Argentina  had  been 
started  by  Mr.  Alfred  Drabble.  An  establishment  which 
still  continues  to  carry  on  business  successfully  under  the 
control  of  "  The  River  Plate  Fresh  Meat  Company." 

Other  large  companies  which  exploit  this  industry  are  the 
Sansinena  "  La  Negra "  (est.  1883),  the  "  Las  Palmas 
Produce  Co."  (est.  1892),  the  "  La  Plata  Cold  Storage  Co." 
(est.  1902),  the  "  La  Blanca  "  Cold  Storage  (est.  1902),  the 
Sansinena  "  Cuatreros  "  (est,  1903),  "  The  Smithfield  and 
Argentine  Meat  Co."  (est.  1905),  and  the  "  Frigorifico  "  (est. 

1905)- 

The  Meat  Trade  recognizes  an  average  difference  of  weight 
between  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  beef  and  between 
Argentine,  Uruguayan  and  "  Patagonian  "  mutton.  Argen- 
tine quarters  of  beef  run  about  12  to  the  ton  and  Uruguayan 
about  14  to  the  ton.  Argentine  mutton  carcases  run  about 
40,  Uruguayan  about  45  to  the  ton,  and  mutton  carcases 
from  Patagonia  (in  Argentina)  some  2  or  3  lbs.  lighter  than 
Uruguayan. 

Already  in  March,  1915,  British  Trade  Reports  showed 
that  the  meat  trade  in  Great  Britain  was  particularly  dull 
on  account  of  the  extremely  high  prices  ruling  and  the  im- 
possibility of  retailers  being  able  to  get  an  equivalent  in  their 
shops.  Since  then,  through  the  fact  of  the  Governments  of 
the  belligerent  powers  being,  as  they  are  and  are  expected 
to  be,  large  buyers,  the  conditions  of  the  British  Trade 
have  been  completely,  if  temporarily,  changed  by  the  War.^ 

*  At  the  moment  of  writing  (February,  1916)  the  demand  by  the 
Allied  Governments  has  become  less. 


270 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


MEAT  TRADE-P 

Frozen  &  chilled 

Frozen 

Sundry  frozen 

Preserved 

Extract  of 

Power  of 

beef 

mutton 

meats 

meats 

beef 

meat            W 

YEARS 

$gold 

$goId 

$go!d 

$gold 

$gold 

$goId 

1885 

1.680 

75.323 





_ 

_               18 

1886 

12,800 

360,508 

1.876 

— 

169,991 

—               '' 

1887 



963,112 

8,837 

— 

75,888 

15.250    J 

1888 

3.326 

1,459.839 

38,343 

13,809 

128,080 

"7.457 

1889 

58,742 

1,322,604 

17.930 

101,714 

105,668 

19,830  } 

1890 

53.029 

1,633.105 

— 

42,661 

375.132 

19.175 

I89I 

5.902 

1,862,247 

31,211 

258,926 

389,454 

62,116   ' 

1892 

22,695 

2,034,898 

49,217 

633,601 

520,892 

226,288    ' 

1893 

222,279 

2,003,254 

34,324 

196,080 

198,070 

75.497    \ 

1894 

12,400 

1,864,110 

59,645 

65,250 

134.393 

21,562    ' 

1895 

63,482 

1,675.273 

16,120 

92,325 

208,399 

21,217    ' 

1896 

119,863 

1,804,205 

24,204 

204,315 

683,487 

13.551    1 

1897 

169,644 

2.035.778 

27.903 

115,127 

257.772 

5,582 

1898 

234,681 

2,393.358 

38,839 

162,294 

605,522 

58,034 

1899 

363,141 

2,265,069 

36,863 

181,600 

765.504 

— 

1900 

2.458.957 

4.512.973 

70,797 

140,480 

230,416 

— 

I9OI 

4,490,447 

5,041,023 

91,648 

94.717 

433,590 

— 

1902 

7,001,833 

6,405,804 

163,820 

164,404 

592,696 

— 

1903 

8,151,956 

6,251,959 

203,973 

374.154 

693.174 

— 

1904 

9,774,354 

7,089,287 

272,308 

242,861 

414,188 

4.885 

1905 

15,285,693 

6,268,059 

356,299 

248,826 

870,950 

599,460 

1906 

15,380,897 

5.391,055 

400,275 

125,908 

842,142 

959.203 

1907 

13,822,162 

5,582,781 

450,198 

159,477 

1.791,574 

1,536,828 

1908 

18,081,443 

6,307,688 

740,421 

178,057 

1,379,952 

1,239,918 

1909 

21.065,747 

5,319,612 

649,206 

639,013 

2,702,988 

1,057.675 

I9IO 

25.370,815 

6,008,133 

721,618 

1,215,370 

3,046,680 

1,267,964 

I9II 

31.283.396 

6,873,285 

946,859 

1,541.333 

1.031,154 

904,730 

I9I2 

34,285,076 

5.613.97I 

1,017,992 

1,769,882 

1,223,860 

1,349,557 

I9I3 

36,622.889 

3.674,206 

910,311 

I.257.391 

1,598,136 

1,097,566    ^ 

Totals 

244.419.329 

104,092.519 

7.381.037 

10.219,575 

21,469,752 

10,673,945    ^ 

=  i 

48,495,900 

20,653,277 

1,464,480 

2,027,693 

4.259,871 

2,117.846 

LIVE  STOCK 


271 


ZXPORTS   FROM    1885   TO    191 3 


Preserved 

LIVE 

STOCK 

Condensed 

Jerked 
beef 

Totals 

YEARS 

tongues 

Cattle 

Sheep 

soup 

$gold 

$gold 

$gold 

$goId 

$gold 

$gold 

1885 

_ 

2.345.313 

58,552 



4,204,077 

6,684,945 

1886 

27,267 

2,203,150 

41,557 

— 

3.738,820 

6.555.969 

IS87 

20,990 

1,415,625 

42,884 

8.257 

2,398,424 

4.949.267 

1888 

56,668 

1,798,251 

34.685 

— 

3.456.787 

7.107,245 

1889 

58.706 

3,194.113 

66,526 

6,889 

6,139.875 

11,092,597 

1890 

185,412 

3.579.456 

159,428 

10,547 

3.913.304 

9.971.249 

I  891 

195.753 

3,997,270 

387.545 

7.728 

3,566,854 

10,765.006 

1892 

198,813 

2,624,675 

170,422 

6.455 

4,100,488 

10,589,044 

1893 

171.584 

4.433.944 

362,904 

— 

4.II5.I34 

11,813,070 

1894 

266,144 

4,540,160 

448,678 

— 

4,564,447 

11,976,789 

1895 

158,911 

7,003,230 

1,292,527 

12,069 

4,225,419 

14,768,972 

1896 

127,980 

6,543.550 

1.536,056 

61,964 

3.217.54I 

14.336,716 

1897 

112,270 

5,018,222 

1,512,684 

22,941 

2,466,313 

11,744,236 

IS98 

112,044 

7,690,450 

1,733.963 

32.447 

2,116,468 

15,178,100 

1899 

"6,439 

6,824,010 

1,631,041 

29.342 

2,038.413 

14,251,422 

I  goo 

204,196 

3.678.150 

594.675 

24,005 

1.979,557 

13,894,206 

1901 

205,525 

1,980,372 

78.248 

16,217 

2,879,455 

15,311,242 

1902 

167.854 

2,848,445 

368,656 

11.769 

2.647.450 

20,372,731 

1903 

142,170 

4.437.420 

503.241 

100,599 

1,542,018 

22,400,664 

1904 

189,400 

2,852,820 

85.219 

114,044 

1. 391. 931 

22,431,297 

1905 

155.615 

5,160,483 

364,209 

122,066 

3.738.444 

33,170,104 

1906 

91,200 

1,676,145 

315.359 

70,614 

596.643 

25.849.441 

1907 

227,119 

2,062,390 

331,701 

107,789 

1,178,056 

27,250,075 

1908 

262,058 

1,876,820 

311,376 

115,822 

772.819 

31,266,374 

1909 

360,444 

4,087,820 

265,908 

188,735 

1.325.053 

37,662,201 

1910 

284,352 

4,056,450 

231,540 

204,293 

1,033,020 

43.440.235 

1911 

214,150 

8,202,750 

332.070 

175.744 

1,661,615 

53,167,086 

1912 

189,523 

9,140,089 

314.694 

197.433 

1,400,748 

56,502,816 

1913 
Totals 

131.952 

6,848,830 

311,991 

375.392 

658,097 

53,486,761 

4.634.539 

122,120,394 

13,888,339 

2,023,161 

77,067,270 

617,989,860 

919.551 

24,230,236 

2,755,622 

401,421 

15.291,125 

122,617,022 

272    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

During  1914  the  meat  producers  and  importers  were 
alarmed  by  the  purchase  of  most  of  the  chief  River  Plate 
cold  storage  establishments  by  United  States  companies, 
who  were  credited  with  the  intention  of  forming  a  "  combine  " 
to  monopolize  the  industry.  Certainly  at  the  commencement 
of  1 914  they  were  paying  high  prices  to  estancieros  and 
selling  considerably  increased  exports  at  low  prices  in  the 
British  markets.  It  would  appear,  however,  as  if  matters 
were  in  the  course  of  adjustment  between  all  the  River  Plate 
Cold  Storage  companies  when  the  War  came  and,  as  has 
just  been  indicated,  altered  all  the  conditions  of  the  meat 
markets. 

For  all  the  above  causes  it  is  difficult  to  assign  a  value  * 
to  recent  River  Plate  Meat  Exports.  Exports  which  it 
must  be  remembered  leave  no  record  as  having  paid  ad 
valorem  export  duty,  since  they  are  duty-free  exports. 

As  for  the  future  of  this  trade  there  can  be  little  doubt  but 
that  it  will  continue  to  increase  commensurately  with  the 
available  quantity  of  live  stock  of  high  quality.  The  Cold 
Storage  Companies  will  buy  no  other  and  thus  have  con- 
stantly encouraged  and  advanced  scientific  breeding  on  the 
River  Plate.  It  may  safely  be  assumed  that  this  trade  is 
not  likely  to  lose  by  the  occurrence  or  effects  of  the  War. 

Recently,  in  view  of  what  seemed  a  threatened  shortage 
of  cattle  for  export  demands,  producers  commenced  breeding 
from  one-year-old  cows  ;  instead  of  beginning  only  at  two 
years  of  age,  as  formerly  was  the  South  American  custom. 

Not  only  do  the  Cold  Storage  Companies  export  Meat  but 
they  also  work  up  into  marketable  forms  the  various  by- 
products of  the  animals  they  slaughter. 

1  A  letter,  received  by  the  author  during  the  preparation  of  this 
book,  from  one  of  the  great  Cold  Storage  Companies,  says  :  "  Much 
regret  that  we  cannot  give  you  any  reliable  information  in  regard  to 
the  Export  Value  (for  191 4),  and  do  not  even  care  about  hazarding  a 
guess." 


ARGENTINE   MEAT   TRADE    1888-191 
Progress  of  Exports  in  the  last  26  years 

3 

MILLIONS 
$GOLD_ 

i|ii||i|i|i§|s||i|||l§lllgi 

IILLIONS 
SCOLD 

te    — 
n    _ 

M      _ 

63     _ 
63     — 
61      _ 

50  — 
49-    _ 
49      _ 
47      _ 

40  _ 
♦»      _ 
44      _ 

'4a     _ 

43      _ 

41  _ 
40      _ 
33      _ 
89      _ 

87  _ 

88  _ 
85     _ 

51  _ 
33 

M 

» 
M 

a 
a 

61 

to 

49 
48 

47 
48 
46 

II 
43 
41 

II 

10 
39 
38 
37 

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M 
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99 

91 

n 
n 

98 
97 
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11 
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__ 

__ 

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V 

EXPORTS  1913 

$  COLD 

Frozen  beef 36.622.889 

$  gold 

/ 

\ 

, 

53.486.761 

r 

> 

/ 

Extract  of  beef  .  .  . 

-  Jerked  beef  

Powder  of  meat'  .  . 

Sundry  frozen  meats 

;  Preserved  meat .  .  . 

d        tongues.  . 

Condensed  soup.  .  . 

Live  Stock  Cattle.  . 

d         Sheep  .  . 

3.674.206 
L598.I36 

658.097 
1.097.566 

910.311 
1.257.391 

I3L952 

375.392 
6.848.830 

3M.99i 

ro  anr>  m>  t 

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KoTE. — As  will  be  noticed  from  the  subjoined  tables,  the  decrease  for  1913  was  due  to 
a  falling  off  of  the  exports  of  frozen  mutton  and  of  cattle  on  the  hoof. 

Ii  iS 


FROZEN    AND   CHILLED    BEEF 
Progress  of  Argentine  Exports  compared  with  the  principal  exporting  countries 


MIL 

TOSS. 


MIL 

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/ 

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:                                        TONS.  1913 

:  Argentina  ....  366.229 
:  U.  S.  of  America .    3.327 
:  Australia  ....   68.454 
:  New  Zealand.  .  .    13.252 

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CHAPTER  XIII 
FORESTRY 

DID  anyone  ever  hear  of  Argentine  timber  ?  Few 
people  indeed  ;  though  a  good  many  more  know 
that  both  of  the  River  Plate  Republics  are  large 
importers  of  wood  from  the  North  of  Europe.  That  they 
need  not  be  so,  because  they  have  all  they,  and  a  good  many 
other  countries  besides,  can  possibly  need  already  growing 
in  their  own  territories  (and  as  much  more  as  may  be 
wanted,  only  for  the  trouble  of  planting  under  highly 
favourable  natural  conditions),  will  come  as  a  surprise  even 
to  some  Argentines  and  Uruguayans  ;  so  accustomed  are 
they  to  import  all  their  building  timber  and  furniture.  Yet 
the  above  are  facts.  ^ 

The  only  well-known  forestal  products  of  the  River  Plate 
are  the  logs  of  and  extract  from  the  Quebracho  {Aspido- 
sperma  Quebracho,  Schlet).  The  wood  of  this  tree  is  very 
hard — hence  its  name  quebra-hacha,  break-axe — and  is 
valuable  for  cabinet-making,  line  carving,  and  engraving, 
etc. ;  but  it  rots  quickly  when  exposed  to  the  influences  of 
weather.  Notwithstanding  this,  on  account  of  its  hard- 
ness, it  is  in  large  demand  for  railway  sleepers.  The  extract 
is  very  largely  used  for  tanning. 

The  following  lists  and  descriptions  given  by  Senor 
Fernando  Mauduit  in  his  erudite  Monograph  on  "  Arbori- 
culture in  Argentina,"  attached  to  the  Argentine  National 
Census,  1908,  cannot,  certainly,  be  improved  on  by  the  pre- 
sent author.  These  Usts,  although  confined  to  the  enumera- 
tion of  the  chief  classes  of  trees  only,  are  at  the  same  time 

^  It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  lack  of  transport  from  the  chief  forestal 
areas  at  present  offers  economic  dirticulties. 

277 


278    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

fully  indicative  of  the  general  nature  of  forest  vegetation 
not  only  in  Argentina  but  also  in  Uruguay. 

A  glance  at  the  map  of  both  Republics  will  show  that,  from 
geographic  and  climatic  distribution,  they  may  practically 
be  reckoned  as  one  country  in  this  regard.  Indeed,  as  will 
be  seen,  Senor  Mauduit  specifically  includes  Uruguay  in 
what  he  terms  the  Riparian  Region.  He  says  that  the  con- 
figuration of  the  different  zones  and  the  fertility  of  their 
soil  allow  of  the  cultivation  of  every  product  of  the  two 
Americas,  Asia,  Europe  and  Australia,  with  the  exception 
of  those  of  the  torrid  zone. 

The  following  enumeration  of  "  regions  "  and  of  the  chief 
kinds  of  trees  found  and  capable  of  being  grown  in  the  River 
Plate  countries,  with  the  respective  descriptions,  are  taken 
from  the  Monograph  above  referred  to  : — 

1.  Subtropical,  comprising  the  plains  of  Santiago  del  Estero 
and  the  Chaco,  the  lowlands  of  Tucuman,  Salta  and  Jujuy, 
North  Corrientes  and  Misiones. 

2.  Northern  Andean,  stretching  along  the  Andes,  from  San 
Juan  to  the  Bolivian  frontier,  comprising  Catamarca,  Salta, 
Jujuy,  Los  Andes  and  part  of  Tucuman. 

3.  Southern  Andean,  from  San  Juan  to  Neuquen. 

4.  Northern  Pampean,  from  Santiago  del  Estero  to  Buenos 
Aires,  wherein  the  eucalyptus  trees  do  not  suffer  from  frost,  and 
comprising  C6rdoba,  San  Luis,  part  of  Santa  Fe  and  Buenos 
Aires. 

5.  Southern  Pampean,  comprising  C6rdoba  and  San  Luis, 
where  the  eucalyptus  freezes,  Southern  Buenos  Aires  and  the 
Pampas, 

6.  Austral,  composed  of  the  territories  of  Rio  Negro,  Chubut 
and  Santa  Cruz. 

7.  Riparian,  comprising  the  islands  of  the  Parana,  Entre  Rios 
and  the  shores  of  the  rivers  Plate,  Parana  and  Uruguay. 

8.  Maritime,  stretching  along  the  Atlantic  coast  in  a  belt 
three  leagues  wide,  more  or  less,  according  to  the  configuration 
of  the  soil. 

9.  Straits,  consisting  of  the  shores  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan 
and  Tierra  del  Fuego. 


FORESTRY  279 

The  confines  of  all  these  regions  cross  and  merge  into  one 
another,  at  times,  on  account  of  the  altitude  in  their  different 
zones.  The  vegetation  typical  of  one  zone  is  often  scattered 
through  one  or  more  neighbouring  ones,  so  that  they  cannot  be 
exactly  defined.  The  greater  or  lesser  altitude  of  a  place  often 
goes  towards  modifying  the  uniform  character  of  the  vegetation. 

In  the  first  region  the  forests  contain  the  best  timber  in  the 
Republic,  cedar  or  hardwood,  so-called  (cedrela)  quebracho 
white  and  red,  lapacho,  algarrobo  (carob),  acacia,  ibira,  molle, 
iiandubay,  different  woods,  Misiones  pine,  Brazilian  araucaria, 
tarco,  urunday,  aguaribay,  cebil,  timbo,  palm  trees,  etc.,  and 
the  fruit  trees  of  the  region,  orange,  lemon,  pomegranate,  guava, 
chirimoyas  (custard  apple)  and  pantas. 

Fruit  tree  planting,  though  seldom,  is  more  carefully  done 
than  formerly,  and  its  products  inundate  the  markets  of  Buenos 
Aires,  Rosario  and  Santa  F6. 

The  Paraguayan  tea  tree,  or  rather  bush  (mate),  is  grown  in 
many  places  and  cultivated  rationally.  Mr.  Thays'  experiments 
give  room  for  hoping  that  this  precious  bush  may  become  a  cer- 
tain source  of  future  wealth,  whereas  the  old  system  of  cultivation 
was  bound  to  entail,  early  or  late,  the  total  extinction  of  the 
product. 

All  kinds  of  eucalyptus  trees  grow  well,  and  the  extensive 
planting  of  these  trees  in  the  Chaco,  Misiones,  in  Tucuman,  Cor- 
rientes  and  Santiago  del  Estero  is  a  consummation  devoutly 
to  be  wished  for. 

The  same  trees  are  found  in  the  second  region,  but  fewer 
in  number  and  smaller  in  size,  orange,  lemon,  fig,  plum,  peach 
and  pomegranate  trees,  also  the  vine  can  be  successfully  grown, 
and  in  the  valleys  guayavos,  chirimoyas,  pantas,  avocados  and 
persimmons.  Plantations  of  mate  and  eucalyptus  could  also  be 
tried. 

The  third  region  is  warmer  and  partly  covered  with  vineyards. 
Here  the  vine  is  in  its  native  element. 

On  the  slopes  of  the  Andes  the  soil  is  admirably  suited  for  the 
planting  of  forest  trees,  such  as  pines,  firs,  beeches,  and  all  others 
peculiar  to  mild,  dry  climates  ;  as  well  as  for  that  of  frait  trees, 
such  as  the  walnut,  chestnut,  apple,  cherry,  pear  and  peach 
trees  .  .  .  the  vine  where  late  frosts  are  not  very  frequent. 

In  the  Northern  Pampas,  or  the  fourth  region,  all  kinds  of 
fniit  trees  can  be  grown,  soil  pcnuitting,  orange,  fig,  pcrsinmion, 
vines,  mulberry,  almond,  peach,  apricot,  plum,  cherry,  walnut. 


280    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

chestnut,  pear  and  quince  trees.  This  is  the  forest  tree  region 
of  the  plains  :  hardwood,  native  willows,  the  paradise  tree,  ombii, 
laurel,  sequoia,  cypress,  sycamore,  maple  and  many  others.  The 
calden  tree  covers  immense  stretches,  likewise  the  carob  tree. 

The  fifth  or  Southern  Pampean  region  differs  from  the  pre- 
ceding one  in  the  cooler  and  even  colder  climate  in  its  southern 
part.  Apart  from  the  trees  which  suffer  from  frosts  this  is  the 
most  favourable  zone  for  tree  cultivation  in  general.  All  forest 
trees  which  resist  io°  below  zero  grow  well  here,  the  oak,  beech, 
ash,  maple,  pine,  fir,  spruce,  poplar,  elm,  sycamore  and  such  fruit 
trees  as  the  peach,  cherry,  plum,  apricot,  quince,  pear  and  apple 
tree. 

These  two  regions  are  those  containing  the  largest  plantations 
of  trees  of  all  kinds,  millions  of  eucalyptus  trees,  farms,  parks 
and  gardens,  richly  stocked,  representing  millions  of  dollars,  and 
ever-increasing  and  multiplying  orchards  and  groves  which  bring 
in  thousands,  but  whose  output  could  be  increased  tenfold 
without  succeeding  in  ousting  the  preserved  fruit  imported  from 
Europe  and  North  America. 

The  sixth  or  Austral  region,  as  its  name  indicates,  is  exposed 
to  the  south  winds.  It  is  the  cold  region  which  excludes  the 
eucalyptus,  the  Calif ornian  pine,  and  peach  tree,  the  vine,  etc., 
but  where  in  sheltered  spots  the  cherry,  plum,  pear  and  apple 
tree  can  be  grown,  the  last  especially.  This,  once  known,  would 
make  the  fortune  of  this  region.  Cider  manufacture  would 
furnish  a  wholesome,  pleasant  beverage,  much  cheaper  than 
wine. 

Moreover,  the  preparation  of  apple  preserves  of  every  kind 
will  one  day  be  like  that  of  North  America.  The  man  who  plants 
apple  trees,  beginning  from  38°  S.  latitude  to  the  south,  secures 
for  himself  and  his  children  returns  proportionate  to  the  outlay 
made. 

The  seventh  region  is  very  fertile  and  suited  for  the  planting 
of  willows,  poplars,  alders,  cryptomerias,  cypresses,  sycamores, 
magnolias,  palm  trees,  orange  trees,  tangerines,  persimmons,  etc. 
Peach  and  quince  trees  are  grown  here  on  a  large  scale  to  supply 
the  markets  of  the  capital.  It  has  been  the  cradle  of  fruit-grow- 
ing, and  as  it  has  been  endowed  with  a  mild  climate  and  a  gener- 
ally humid  soil  everything  grows  luxuriantly  and  produces 
abundantly,  though  the  general  quality  of  its  products  is  not 
equal  to  that  of  the  fruit  grown  in  the  fifth  region. 

The  eighth  region  is  arid  in  certain  places,  and  always  exposed 


FORESTRY  281 

to  the  winds  and  sea  fogs  which  are  so  hannful  to  the  growth  of 
the  trees.  The  winds  from  the  south  blow  throughout  the  year 
on  nearly  all  our  sea  coast.  The  only  trees  that  can  be  grown 
successfully  are  the  eucalyptus  {E.  globiihis),  the  Canadian  and 
other  poplars,  the  tamarisk,  cypress,  lambertiana,  maritime  pine, 
Pinus  insignis,  and  all  must  be  planted  very  thickly  in  order  to 
resist  the  impetuous  attack  of  the  winds  and  the  fogs. 

In  the  ninth  and  last  region  we  have  included  the  shores  of 
the  Straits  of  Magellan  as  far  as  Gallegos,  and  inland  as  far  as 
the  hills ;  and  on  the  other  shore  Fireland  (Tierra  del  Fuego). 
Fruit  tree  planting  cannot  be  thought  of  there  for  the  present, 
the  only  thing  to  be  done  is  to  propagate  largely  the  native 
growths,  and  where  the  climate  permits  it  to  plant  spruces,  pines, 
firs,  birches,  beeches,  hazels,  currant  bushes,  yews,  all  of  which 
are  sturdy  growths  of  the  colder  countries. 


Chief  Indigenous  Species  of  Forest  Trees 

Quebracho,  Aspidosperma  Quebracho,  Schlet. — A  tree  20 
metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter,  with  very  hard  wood, 
greatly  valued  for  certain  purposes.  Does  not  resist  exposure 
to  the  elements,  however,  and  rots  easily.  Greatly  prized  for 
engraving  and  cabinet-making  and  for  fine  wood  carving,  etc. 
The  bark  and  leaves  are  rich  in  tannin.  It  appears  that  there  are 
some  varieties  which  do  not  possess  so  large  a  percentage  of 
tannin. 

It  grows  easily  from  seed  which  is  sown  in  beds  when  ripe, 
where  it  must  be  nursed  before  sowing  in  beds.  Its  growth  is 
slow  at  first,  but  once  the  roots  have  taken  well  in  a  soil  rich  in 
humus  it  attains  a  great  size.  It  multiplies  naturally  from  its 
seeds  and  should  form  a  third  as  a  stock  tree  in  the  afforestation 
of  the  subtropical  regions. 

BoLDU,  Boldii  chilanum,  Nees. — Grows  to  a  height  of  15  metres 
in  the  Andean  regions,  where  its  timber  is  used  for  various 
purposes.  It  multiplies  from  seed  and  should  be  sown  in  beds 
in  holes.  Can  be  utilized  as  an  auxiliary  in  afforestation  of  its 
native  region. 

Lignum  Vit^  (Palo  Santo),  Bulnesia  Sarmienii,  Grisb. — 
20  metres  in  height  by  075  metre  in  diameter.  Grows  plentifully 
in  the  Chaco  and  Misioncs,  Tucuman,  Salta  and  Jujuy,  gives  a 
timber,  heavier  than  water,  which  is  used  for  cabinet-making 


282    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

and  various  ornaments.  Multiplies  easily  from  seed  as  an 
auxiliary  in  subtropical  woods. 

Palo  Blanco,  Calycophyllum  multiflorum,  Grisb. — About 
15  metres  in  height,  gives  very  fine  timber,  yellow  in  colour,  used 
for  different  joinery  purposes.  Multiplies  from  seed  like  the 
preceding  tree  and  used  also  as  an  auxiliary  in  the  same 
regions. 

HoRCO  MoLLE,  Bumelia  ohtusiolia,  Roem  and  Schlet. — 12 
metres  in  height  by  0-50  metre  in  diameter.  Furnishes  excellent 
timber  for  cabinet-making  and  coach-building.  Multiplies  from 
seed  sown  in  rows  as  soon  as  ripe.  In  mixed  subtropical  woods, 
it  serves  as  an  auxiliary  for  afforestation  and  reafforestation. 

GuAicuM,  Cesalpina  melanocarpa,  Grisb. — From  10  to  15 
metres  in  height.  Gives  nice  veined  timber,  used  for  cabinet- 
making  and  ornaments.  Its  bark,  as  well  as  the  seed  pods, 
contains  a  large  percentage  of  tannin.  It  multiplies  from  seed 
and  is  a  secondary  tree  throughout  the  subtropical  zone. 

Red  Cedar,  Cedrela  brasiliensis,  A.  Juss.— 30  metres  in  height 
by  075  metre  in  diameter,  and  sometimes  more.  Furnishes 
very  fine  light  timber  of  a  nice  colour  and  easy  to  work.  Much 
used  for  joinery  work.  One  of  the  best  stock  trees  in  the  sub- 
tropical zone,  where  it  should  be  used  for  reafforestation  in  the 
existing  woods,  and  afforestation  throughout  the  subtropical 
region.  To  be  sown  in  rows  as  far  as  possible  and  with  seeds  in 
layers. 

Tala,  Celtis  tala,  Gill,  Celtis  sellowiana,  Miq. — From  10  to  15 
metres  in  height.  This  tree  is  of  slight  importance  for  afforesta- 
tion, although  its  timber  is  good  for  posts,  cart-trees,  handles 
for  tools,  etc.  Grows  in  the  first,  second  and  third  regions. 
Multiplies  from  seeds  in  layers  as  an  auxiliary  in  mixed  woods 
and  woodlands. 

Palo  de  Lanza  Amarilla  (Yellow  Lancewood),  Chuncoa  tri- 
folia,  Grisb.— Same  height  and  regions  as  the  preceding  tree. 
To  be  planted  in  the  same  woods.  The  timber  is  useful  for 
joinery  work. 

Laurel,  Emmotum  apogon,  Grisb. — One  of  the  finest  trees  of 
the  subtropical  region  ;  over  25  metres  in  height  by  0'5o  metre 
in  diameter.  The  timber  is  very  fine  and  good,  and  is  useful  for 
carpentry  work.  One  of  the  best  kinds  for  reafforestation  and 
as  stock  for  afforestation.  Sown  in  rows  in  little  holes  with 
seeds  in  layers  as  far  as  possible. 


FORESTRY  283 

White  or  Yellow  Laurel,  Oreodaphne  suaveolens,  Meissn. — 
30  metres  in  height  by  0-50  metre  in  diameter.  Furnishes  Hght 
timber,  aromatic,  easily  worked  and  suitable  for  joinery.  Is  a 
good  auxiliary  for  reafforestation  and  for  afforestation  in  the 
first  region.    Sown  like  the  preceding  one. 

Black  Laurel  or  Mountain  Laurel,  Nectandra  porphyria, 
Grisb. — Same  height  as  the  preceding  trees  and  i  metre  in  dia- 
meter. Gives  fine  yellow  timber  with  a  black  grain  like  walnut, 
but  requiring  a  long  time  to  become  seasoned,  and  splitting  when 
worked  before  being  quite  seasoned.  Employed  in  hydraulic 
works,  as  it  keeps  well  in  water.  A  good  auxiliary  kind  for 
afforestation  in  the  first,  second  and  fourth  regions,  the  seed 
to  be  sown  in  little  holes,  in  rows  and  in  layers. 

TiMBO  Pacara,  Enterolobium  iimhouva,  Mart. — A  very  leafy 
tree  of  the  subtropical  region,  from  15  to  25  metres  in  height  by 
I  to  1-50  metres  in  diameter.  Furnishes  timber  used  for  car- 
pentry and  different  household  purposes,  for  boats,  casks,  etc. 
The  bark  contains  tannin,  and  the  sawdust  of  tlie  dry  wood 
causes  sneezing.  This  is  a  good  auxiliaiy  kind  for  woods  in  the 
first,  second  and  fourth  regions.  Multiplies  from  seeds  sown  in 
holes  in  rows.  It  can  also  be  grown  from  twigs  to  be  planted  at 
the  end  of  May,  a  metre  apart,  in  rows  of  from  i  to  3  metres 
apart. 

Beech,  Fagus  antarctica,  Mirb.,  F.  hetuloides,  Mirb.,  F.  ohliciia, 
Mirb. — A  tree  of  20  to  30  metres  in  height,  peculiar  to  the 
austral  regions,  where  it  forms  forests  and  woods.  Its  timber 
does  not  resist  damp  greatly,  but  is  much  prized  for  box-making 
and  internal  woodwork.  Multiplies  easily  from  its  seeds,  which 
grow  naturally  in  its  shade.  When  they  are  gathered  to  be  used 
for  afforestation  they  must  be  sown  at  once  in  layers,  or  in  little 
holes,  as  their  genuinative  power  is  soon  lost.  Is  one  of  the  best 
kinds  of  stock  trees  for  afforestation  in  the  6th  and  9th  regions 
and  for  reafforestation  where  it  already  grows. 

Larch,  Fitz-roya  paiagonica,  Hook. — This  conifer  of  the  woods 
of  the  south  attains  a  height  of  30  metres,  and  the  timber  given 
by  it  is  equal  to  pinewood  and  used  for  similar  purposes.  Is  very 
suitable  for  afforestation  intermingled  with  wild  pines  in  the 
austral  region,  and  with  spruce  in  that  of  the  straits.  It  might 
also  be  added  to  the  araucaria  in  the  extreme  south  of  the 
Southern  Andean  region. 

Quillay  (Soap  Bark),  Gartigandra  amorphoides,  Grisb. — This 


284    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

is  a  very  thorny  tree  and  can  be  used  as  a  protective  belt  round 
large  orchards  or  plantations  for  industrial  purposes,  in  places 
where  animals  trespass,  and  there  is  no  other  way  to  prevent  it. 
It  attains  a  height  of  15  metres  by  075  metre  in  diameter  and 
multiplies  naturally  from  seed.  Its  timber  seems  to  be  of  good 
quality,  and  its  bark  is  used  as  soap  in  cleaning  woollen  and 
cotton  fabrics. 

It  can  be  planted  as  indicated  above  in  regions  first,  second 
and  third ;  and,  should  it  become  a  nuisance,  it  may  be  rooted 
out  when  the  plantations  are  strong  against  trespass. 

Chanar,  Goiirlien  decorticans,  Gill. — Whole  woods  of  these 
trees  are  to  be  found  in  regions  i,  2,  3  and  4.  Its  fruit  is  edible 
and  animals  crave  for  it.  Its  timber  is  used  for  various  household 
purposes. 

Walnut  (Cayuri),  Juglans  austmlis,  Grisb. — 15  metres  in 
height  by  i  metre  in  diameter,  with  timber  equal  to  European 
walnut.  This  valuable  tree,  which  ought  to  be  cultivated  on  a 
large  scale,  is  gradually  vanishing  from  our  woods  without  any 
attempt  at  reafforestation.  We  shall  become  aware  of  its 
industrial  value  only  when  it  has  completely  disappeared.  It  is 
suitable  as  a  stock  tree  in  afforestation  and  as  an  auxiliary  in 
reafforestation. 

Red  Quebracho,  Loxopierigium  Lorentzii,  Grisb. — A  valuable 
tree,  15  metres  in  height  by  2  metres  in  diameter,  its  timber  is 
greatly  prized  for  building  purposes,  and  possesses  so  much 
tannin  that  it  is  largely  exploited  in  the  Chaco  forests.  It  is  slow 
of  growth,  and,  therefore,  measures  for  its  multiplication  are 
indispensable,  so  as  to  avoid  exhausting  this  source  of  wealth. 
It  is  one  of  the  best  stock  kinds  for  reafforestation,  a  third  being 
planted  with  species  of  a  more  rapid  growth.  It  multiplies 
naturally  if  care  is  taken  to  prevent  forest  fires  and  to  leave 
always  a  few  full-grown  trees  standing.  Red  Quebracho  timber 
is  hard,  heavy,  and  not  easily  worked.  It  is  used  especially  for 
railway  sleepers,  posts,  columns,  frames,  etc.  It  is  nicely  veined, 
and  heavy  furniture  can  be  made  from  it.  Buried  or  in  water 
it  keeps  for  many  years. 

TiPA  (Hardwood),  Machcsrium  Tipa,  Benth. — A  tree  from 
20  to  25  metres  in  height,  very  leafy.  Its  timber  is  used  for 
different  household  purposes.  A  splendid  avenue  tree,  but  very 
third-rate  as  a  forest  tree.  The  seeds  are  sown  in  rows,  once  ripe  : 
ist  and  4th  regions. 


FORESTRY  285 

Mora  (Mulberry),  Madura  Mora,  Grisb. — From  15  to  20 
metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter.  Furnishes  yellowish, 
fine-grained  timber,  which  is  used  for  the  manufacture  of  elegant 
furniture.  Well  seasoned,  the  wood  is  the  colour  of  mahogany. 
An  excellent  auxiliary  tree  in  the  subtropical,  Pampean  and 
Northern  Andean  regions.  In  mixed  woods  it  may  be  stock  or 
prevailing  tree,  according  to  the  kinds  grown  with  it.  It  may 
also  be  used  for  woodland  cutting.  It  is  sown  in  rows,  or  grown 
in  nurseries  for  two  years,  when  the  young  plants  are  trans- 
planted. 

Palo  de  San  Antonio,  Myrsine  floribunda. — 15  metres  in 
height  by  075  mictre  in  diameter,  with  a  straight  trunk  and 
springy  wood,  which  is  used  principally  for  making  staves.  To 
be  sown  in  rows  as  an  auxiliary,  in  mixed  woods,  in  the  ist, 
2nd  and  4th  regions. 

Cebil,  Piptadenia  Cehil,  Grisb.,  P.  communis,  Benth. — A  tree 
of  20  to  25  metres  in  height  by  over  i  metre  in  diameter.  Grows 
in  the  subtropical  Andean  and  Northern  Pampean  regions. 
Excellent  timber,  but  can  only  be  utilized  when  quite  seasoned, 
and  is  used  principally  for  joinery.  To  be  sown  as  stock  trees 
in  furrows  or  small  holes. 

Algarrobo  (Carob  Tree),  Prosopis  alba,  Grisb. — From  15 
to  20  metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter,  with  timber  much 
used  in  carpentry,  and  bark  possessing  a  large  percentage  of 
tannin.  A  good  kind  for  afforestation  in  regions  i,  2  and  4  ; 
to  be  sown  as  stock  trees  in  furrows  or  small  holes. 

Nandubay,  Prosopis  algarrohilo,  Grisb. — About  10  metres  in 
height,  with  hard  timber,  generally  used  for  large  stakes  and 
posts.  Grows  well  throughout  the  northern  and  even  in  the  third 
region.    To  be  sown  as  an  auxiliary  in  mixed  woods. 

Iriraru,  Viraru,  Palo  de  Lanza  (Lancewood),  Ruprechtia 
excelsa,  Grisb. — 10  to  15  metres  in  height  by  075  metre  in  dia- 
meter ;  giving  excellent  timber  for  various  household  purposes. 
To  be  sown  as  an  auxiliary  in  woods  of  the  northern  regions, 
predominating  among  timber  for  cutting. 

Lapacho,  Tabehuia  Avellanedce,  Lorentz,  Tabebuia  flavesccns, 
Benth. — This  beautiful  tree  is  covered  with  blossoms  in  spring 
time,  the  former  with  pinky  mauve  and  the  latter  with  j-ellow 
blossoms.  In  the  northern  forests  it  grows  to  a  height  of  25 
metres,  its  wood  is  very  fine-grained  and  very  nmch  prized  for 
all  sorts  of  fine  carpentry.    Two  excellent  kinds  for  stock  in  tall 


286    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

mixed  woods,  ist  and  2nd  regions.  To  be  sown  in  rows,  in 
furrows  or  small  holes. 

Coco  (Cocoanut  Tree),  Zanthoxylum  Coco,  Gill. — From  lo  to 
12  metres  in  height  by  075  metre  in  diameter.  The  wood  is  very 
pretty  and  fine,  valued  for  elegant  furniture.  To  be  sown  in  rows, 
furrows  or  small  holes  as  an  auxiliary  in  mixed  woods  and  plan- 
tations in  the  ist  and  2nd  regions. 

Urunday,  Astronium  juglandifolium,  Grisb. — A  splendid  tree 
from  25  to  30  metres  in  height  by  1-50  metres  in  diameter, 
common  in  the  Chaco.  Its  timber  is  very  hard  and  richly 
coloured,  it  is  used  for  furniture,  ship-building,  etc.  One  of  the 
best  kinds  for  stock  and  reafforestation  in  the  first  region. 
Multiplies  naturally  from  seed  if  care  be  taken  to  leave  a  few 
trees  standing  at  suitable  distances  for  producing  seeds,  which 
scatter  easily.  In  the  warm  valleys  of  the  4th  region,  as  well 
as  in  the  2nd,  to  be  sown  in  furrows  with  other  auxiliary 
species  for  afforestation. 

Alder  Tree,  Alnus  ferruginea,  Kth. — From  the  Northern 
Andean  region,  where  it  grows  to  a  height  of  15  metres  by 
075  metre  in  diameter.  Gives  white,  very  easily  worked,  damp- 
resisting  timber,  used  for  j  oinery  work.  A  good  auxiliary  kind  for 
afforestation  in  ist,  2nd^  4th  and  7th  regions.  To  be  sown  in 
rows,  in  furrows  or  in  plots  with  other  species,  one  being  the 
stock  tree. 

Native  or  Red  Willow,  Salix  Humholdiiana,  Witti.— 15 
metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter.  Grows  well  in  all 
regions  where  the  eucalyptus  does  not  freeze,  gives  timber  for 
carpentry  and  multiplies  from  seed.  A  good  auxihary  in  mixed 
woods  and  timber  for  cutting,  and  for  reafforestation  on  damp 
soil,  where  it  is  planted  from  twigs  towards  the  end  of  the  winter. 
For  afforestation  it  is  sown  in  plots  when  the  seeds  are  ripe,  in 
regions  4  and  7  and  the  more  temperate  part  of  region  3. 

Southern  Pine,  Araucaria  imhricata,  R.  and  P.— A  tree 
50  metres  in  height  of  our  southern  forests.  Its  timber  is  equal 
to  the  best  pine,  and  it  is  one  of  the  best  stock  kinds  in  the  6th 
region.  To  be  sown  in  rows  or  in  little  holes  when  the  seeds 
drop  naturally  in  the  5th  and  6th  regions. 

MisiONES  Pine,  Araucaria  brasiliensis,  A.  Rich. — ^This  conifer 
grows  to  a  height  of  50  metres  by  i  metre  in  diameter  in  certain 
valleys  of  the  northern  regions  i,  2,  and  part  of  3,  4,  7  and  8, 
as  far  as  Mar  del  Plata.    Its  timber  is  equal  to  that  of  the 


FORESTRY  287 

pine,  it  is  used  for  joinery  and  building.    Sown  like  the  preceding 
tree. 

Cypress,  Lihocedras  chilensis,  Endl. — From  the  Andes,  where 
it  grows  to  a  height  of  25  to  30  metres  by  070  metre  in  diameter. 
Its  wood  is  fine  and  excels  for  furniture  and  veneering.  A  good 
auxiliary  kind  for  the  dense  woods  of  the  south. 


Chief  Species   of  Exotic   Forest  Trees   Grown 
IN  THE  Country 

Fir,  Ahies  Nordmanniana,  Spach. — From  Asia  Minor,  where 
it  grows  to  a  height  of  40  metres  by  1-50  metres  in  diameter  at 
least,  5th  and  6th  regions,  in  tall  woods  consisting  of  firs  alone. 

Acacia  Olive,  Acacia  melanoxylon,  R.  Br. — From  Australia, 
where  it  attains  a  height  of  15  to  20  metres  by  i  metre  in  dia- 
meter ;  very  branchy,  and  giving  very  hard  wood  known  as 
iron  wood.  A  good  stock  kind  in  acacia,  mimosa  and  laurel 
groves  in  regions  4,  5,  7  and  8,  as  far  as  Mar  del  Plata.  To  be 
sown  in  rows  or  in  furrows. 

French  Mimosa,  Acacia  dealhata,  Link. — Likewise  from 
Austraha  ;  it  attains  a  height  of  20  metres  by  0-50  metre  in 
diameter,  but  breaks  easily.  A  good  predominating  species  and 
for  reafforestation  of  timber  for  cutting,  in  regions  4,  5,  7  and  8, 
as  far  as  38°  S.  latitude. 

Maple  Tree,  Acer  pseudo  plaianus,  L. — A  European  tree 
20  to  30  metres  in  height  by  075  metre  in  diameter,  growing  as 
rapidly  as  the  sycamore  maple.  An  excellent  auxiliary  kind  for 
tall  woods  of  trees  with  deciduous  leaves,  in  regions  4,  5,  6  and  7. 
To  be  sown  in  rows,  in  furrows  or  one-year-old  saplings  2  metres 
apart. 

Heavenly  Tree,  Ailanthus  glandulosa,  Desf. — From  China, 
from  25  to  30  metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter ;  very 
sturdy,  and  multiplying  on  all  sides  from  the  numberless  saphngs 
which  grow  from  its  roots  ;  furnishes  fine,  hard,  well-veined 
timber.  A  good  kind  for  mixed  woods  and  for  stock  timber  in 
regions  4,  5,  6,  7  and  8.  To  be  sown  in  rows  or  planted  from 
saplings. 

Alder  Tree,  Alnus  glutinosa,  Gacrtn. — From  Europe  and 
Western  Asia.  From  20  to  30  metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in 
diameter.  Grows  well  in  the  riparian  region,  and  its  wood  is 
useful  for  carpentry.    Sown  in  rows,  in  furrows  or  in  plots. 


288    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

Spanish  Chestnut,  Castanea  vesca,  Gaertn. — From  Europe, 
Asia  and  Northern  Africa.  It  grows  here  as  a  fruit  tree,  but  may 
be  grown  also  as  a  forest  stock  tree  in  tall  and  mixed  woods,  and 
as  an  auxihary  in  timber  for  cutting  in  regions  3,  4,  5,  6  and  7. 
Its  wood  is  principally  used  for  staves,  casks,  etc.  To  be  sown 
in  rows  as  soon  as  it  falls,  as  the  germinative  power  is  of  short 
duration.  It  may  also  be  sown  in  nursery  beds,  for  transplanting 
when  two  or  three  years  old. 

Casuarina  (She  Oak). — Various  species  are  grown  here,  chief 
are  C.  quadrivalvis,  Labill.,  C.  equisetifolia ,  Forst.,  and  C.  glauca, 
Sieb.  Herb.  We  ignore  the  height  to  which  they  may  grow,  but 
many  specimens  we  have  are  from  20  to  30  metres  high.  The 
mode  of  reproduction  and  cultivation  is  the  same  as  for  eucalyp- 
tus. The  wood  is  excellent.  Suitable  for  high  woods  in  the 
3rd,  4th,  5th,  6th  and  7th  regions. 

Cedars. — Although  not  j^et  grown  on  a  very  large  scale,  the 
specimens  we  have  of  C.  Atlantica,  C.  lihani  and  C.  deodara, 
natives  of  Mounts  Atlas,  Lebanon  and  the  Himalayas,  are 
hardy,  cold-resisting,  and  everything  points  to  our  being  able 
to  grow  them  well  in  high  woods  intermingled  with  cypresses, 
in  the  3rd,  4th,  5th,  6th  and  7th  regions.  Its  timber  is  first  class, 
and  useful  for  many  purposes. 

Sweet  Cherry,  Cerasus  avium,  Moench. — From  Europe, 
where  it  grows  to  a  height  of  20  to  25  metres,  gives  splendid  wood, 
greatly  prized  for  furniture.  The  few  specimens  we  have  scat- 
tered through  the  4th,  5th,  6th,  7th  and  8th  regions.  To  be 
sown  in  nursery  beds  after  gathering  the  seeds,  or  in  layers  in 
furrows  or  small  holes.  The  nurslings  are  transplanted  when  a 
year  or  two  old. 

Cryptomeria  Japonica,  Don. — From  Japan.  Grows  very 
well  here,  easily  attaining  the  same  height  as  in  its  native  land, 
which  varies  from  30  to  40  metres.  A  good  kind  for  tall  woods  on 
rich  soil.  Multiplication  and  cultivation  like  that  of  the  eucalyp- 
tus in  the  4th,  5th  and  7th  regions.    Trials  in  the  8th. 

Dammara  Australis,  Lumb. — From  New  Zealand.  The  few 
specimens  we  have  in  the  environs  of  Buenos  Aires  show  a  species 
quite  as  hardy  as  in  its  native  land,  where  it  attains  a  height  of 
50  metres  by  2  metres  in  diameter.  Grown  hke  the  eucalyptus 
in  compact  groves  and  in  the  same  region. 

Eucalyptus. — Native  of  Australia.  We  reckon  our  specimens 
of  this  gigantic  tree  by  the  thousand,  of  several  different  kinds. 


FORESTRY  289 

The  first  known  specimens  of  E.  globulus  were  planted  more  than 
half  a  century  ago,  and  now  it  would  take  a  long  time  to  enumer- 
ate all  our  progressive  citizens  who  have  devoted  large  tracts 
of  land  to  forming  dense  groves  of  these  trees,  which,  besides 
giving  them  good  returns  in  the  sums  represented  by  the  present 
eucalyptus  groves,  have  also  contributed  to  increase  the  value 
of  the  land,  directly  or  indirectly.  Directly,  thanks  to  the  amount 
of  vegetable  mould  which  these  trees  originate,  and  indirectly 
for  the  shelter  afforded  by  them  for  growing  certain  kinds  of 
plants  and  rearing  delicate  breeds  of  cattle  which  would  not  have 
thriven  in  the  open  country.  It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate 
the  share  of  the  eucalyptus  in  the  increased  value  of  the  lands, 
flocks  and  herds.  In  order  to  form  an  idea  on  the  subject  one 
must  imagine  what  estancias  were  sixty  years  ago,  with  the 
sheltering  ombu  and  the  peach  grove,  enclosed  by  paradise  trees 
and  willows.  How  long  it  took  to  grow  a  tiny  grove  of  willows, 
paradise  tree  and  black  wattle,  which  barely  furnished  sufficient 
wood  to  heat  the  water  for  brewing  mate  or  Paraguayan  tea. 
Different  kinds  of  Eucalyptus  are  grown  under  apocryphal 
specific  designations,  and  therefore  we  abstain  from  giving  them 
lest  we  lead  planters  into  temptation. 

The  best  among  them  are  the  following  : — 

E,  Amygdalina,  Labill. — From  Australia  and  Tasmania, 
140  metres  in  height  by  4  or  5  metres  in  diameter. 

E.  Boirioydes,  Smith. — From  Southern  Queensland,  where  it 
attains  a  height  of  60  metres  by  2  metres  in  diameter. 

E.  divcrsicolor,  F.  v.  M. — From  Southern  Australia,  140  metres 
in  height,  over  2  metres  in  diameter. 

E.  cornuta,  Labill.— From  the  same  place  as  the  preceding  one, 
60  metres  in  height  by  2  metres  in  diameter. 

E.  hemiphloia,  F.  v.  M. — From  New  South  Wales,  where  it 
attains  a  height  of  60  metres  by  2  metres  in  diameter.  The  best 
wood  of  all. 

E.  leucoxylon,  F.  v.  M. — From  New  South  Wales  and  Victoria. 
This  is  the  famous  "  iron  bark  "  ;  it  is  only  30  metres  in  height 
by  2  metres  in  diameter. 

E.  melliodoni,  Cunningh. — New  South  Wales  and  Victoria. 
Gives  very  fine  timber  and  grows  to  a  height  of  60  metres  by 
1-50  metres  in  diameter.     Its  blossoms  are  much  visited  by 
bees. 
19 


290    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

E.  occidentalis,  Smith. — From  Western  Australia.  Like 
E.  globulus,  can  be  grown  near  the  sea  coast.  Generally  it  does 
not  exceed  40  metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter. 

E.  paiici-flora,  Sieb. — Southern  Australia  and  Tasmania. 
From  50  to  60  metres  in  height  by  2  metres  in  diameter,  wood  of 
excellent  quality.    One  of  the  best  cold-resisting  species. 

E.  Pilidaris,  Smith. — Southern  Queensland  and  New  South 
Wales,  100  metres  in  height  and  4  metres  in  diameter  ;  wood  of 
excellent  quality. 

E.  viminalis,  Labill. — Southern  Australia,  where  it  grows  to 
a  height  of  100  metres  by  3  or  4  metres  in  diameter. 

All  these  species  have  been  imported  and  planted  in  different 
places.  Some,  on  the  one  hand,  and  others,  on  the  other,  prob- 
ably have  been  lost,  the  remainder  are  mixed  to  such  a  degree 
that  at  present  no  information  can  be  given  about  them  without 
falling  into  error. 

All  the  species  mentioned  and  some  others  were  planted  in 
"  3  de  Febrero  "  Park,  about  the  year  1875-76,  in  the  clump 
which  shaded  the  guanacos'  corral.  At  first  they  bore  dis- 
tinguishing numbers,  but  now  nothing  remains  to  designate 
them.  Another  nursery  had  been  started  on  the  other  side  of 
the  railway  to  the  Tigre,  beside  the  avenue  of  palms,  of  which 
also  we  believe  not  a  vestige  remains.  There  also  was  a  nursery 
of  ombiis,  one  of  hardwood  trees  and  a  collection  of  American 
grape  vines. 

Ash  Tree,  Fraxinus  excelsior,  L. — Europe.  From  25  to  30 
metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter.  Gives  very  elastic, 
white  or  yellow  timber,  greatly  prized  in  carriage-building. 
Grows  well  in  the  5th,  6th  and  7th  regions.  The  seeds  are  laid 
down  as  they  ripen,  sometimes  they  take  two  years  to  germinate, 
but  when  they  fall  naturally  to  the  ground  and  are  covered  over 
by  leaves  in  autumn  they  sprout  well.  On  this  account  and  that 
of  its  intrinsic  value  this  tree  is  one  of  the  best  kinds  for  stocking 
tall  and  mixed  woods.  The  best  plan  for  afforestation  is  to  sow 
the  seeds  in  nursery  beds  and  plant  out  the  following  year. 

Black  Acacia,  Gleditschia  triacanthos. — A  thorny  North 
American  tree ;  here  growing  to  a  height  of  25  metres  by  0-70 
metre  in  diameter.  Its  wood  is  excellent  for  cabinet-making. 
Sown  in  rows  as  an  auxiliary — on  account  of  its  thorns.  It  gives 
a  quantity  of  edible  pods  like  that  of  the  carob  tree.  It  grows 
well  in  the  3rd,  4th,  5th,  6th,  7th  and  8th  regions. 


FORESTRY  291 

Walnut,  Juglans  regia,  L. — From  Europe  and  Asia.  Does 
not  exceed  25  metres  in  height,  but  is  a  metre  and  more  in 
diameter.  Grows  as  a  forest  tree,  but  is  very  suitable  for  stocking 
mixed  woods  in  the  2nd,  3rd,  5th  and  6th  regions.  To  be  sown 
in  rows,  in  holes  or  in  nursery  beds  and  planted  out  when  a 
year  old.  As  the  seeds  keep  their  germinative  power  for  a  month 
only,  they  must  be  sown  immediately  or  placed  in  layers.  The 
wood,  which  is  greatly  prized,  is  one  of  the  best  known  and 
valued. 

Paradise  Tree,  Melia  azedarach,  L. — Southern  Asia.  15 
metres  in  height  by  o-6o  metre  in  diameter.  A  good  auxiliary 
species  for  mixed  woods  and  timber  for  cutting  in  the  3rd,  4th, 
6th  and  7th  regions,  where  the  eucalyptus  does  not  freeze. 

Negundo  Fraxinifolium,  Nutt. — From  North  America, 
growing  well  in  the  3rd,  4th,  5th,  6th  and  7th  regions,  where 
it  attains  a  height  of  10  to  15  metres  by  0-50  metre  in  diameter. 
It  is  a  good  kind  for  mixed  woods  and  timber  for  cutting.  The 
seeds  are  sown  immediately  on  ripening.  It  is  also  grown  from 
grafting  twigs. 

Fir,  Picea  excclsa,  Linck. — From  Europe,  where  it  attains  a 
height  of  40  metres.  The  few  specimens  we  know  do  not  allow 
of  our  expressing  any  opinion,  based  on  practical  experience, 
about  the  possible  merit  of  this  splendid  tree  in  our  woods  in 
the  3rd,  5th,  6th  and  9th  regions,  though  its  origin  and  growth 
give  reason  for  hope.  In  Europe,  in  all  the  plantations  we  know 
of  in  Germany,  England  and  France,  the  f\T  is  one  of  the  best 
cold,  storm  and  drought-resisting  trees. 

It  is  sown  in  rows,  in  furrows  2*50  to  3  metres  apart,  according 
to  the  soil.  It  may  be  planted  alone  or  alternately  with  birch 
trees. 

Pines. — The  kind  best  known  and  cultivated  here  are  the 
Pinus  austriaca,  P.  insignis  and  P.  Pinaster.  Without  ques- 
tioning the  specific  designation  applied  to  certain  kinds  of  pine 
trees,  we  may  say  that  P.  insignis  grows  luxuriantly  in  the 
4th,  5th  and  7th  regions,  forming  dense  woods  ;  the  /-*.  Canaricn- 
sis,  not  quite  so  hardy,  does  not  flourish  so  far  south,  the  other 
kinds  may  be  grown  in  those  as  well  as  in  the  Riparian  austral 
and  maritime  regions,  where  they  may  prove  very  useful,  as 
well  as  the  varieties  P.  mariiima,  P.  laricio,  etc. 

Plane  Tree,  Platanus  oricnialis,  L. — From  Europe  and  Asia 
Minor.    It  grows  to  40  metres  in  height  by  i  or  2  metres  in  dia- 


292    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

meter.  It  is  the  favourite  for  avenues  ;  grows  taller  in  the  woods, 
but  its  foliage  is  not  so  luxuriant.  Propagated  from  grafting 
twigs  to  be  planted  50  centimetres  apart  in  rows  2-50  metres 
apart.  To  be  thinned  out  when  two  years  old,  leaving  the  latter 
distance  between  them  and  filling  up  the  gaps  with  those  taken 
out.    Its  wood  is  useful  for  many  purposes,  though  not  first  class. 

Poplar,  Populus. — We  have  many  large  plantations  of  the 
Lombardy  poplar,  P.  Nigra,  I..,  Canadian  poplar,  0.  Canadensis, 
Michx.,  and  the  Swiss,  Virginian  and  some  of  the  Carolina  poplar, 
which  is  the  male  plant  of  the  same  species.  Some  plantations 
of  the  silver  poplar,  P.  alba,  P.  euphratica  and  P.  simoni,  have 
also  been  planted. 

All  may  be  utilized  as  auxiharies  in  planting  mixed  woods  and 
timber  for  cutting.  They  are  very  hardy,  and  the  wood  is  used 
for  packing-cases,  boxes,  etc.  They  are  planted  from  grafting 
twigs  50  centimetres  apart,  in  rows  of  2  metres,  to  be  thinned 
out  when  necessary. 

White  Acacia,  Rohinia  pseudo-acacia. — North  American. 
Grows  to  a  height  of  25  metres  by  0-60  metre  in  diameter  ;  when 
dry,  the  wood  is  excellent,  and  is  used  for  coach-building,  cabinet- 
making,  etc.  It  grows  well,  especially  in  mixed  woods,  as  the 
saplings  are  utilized.  In  timber  plantations  it  must  be  planted 
singly  as  it  overruns  the  ground  in  a  short  time.  To  be  sown  in 
rows  25  or  30  kilogs.  to  the  hectare,  without  any  mixture. 
From  the  strongest  and  straightest  specimens  stock  trees  are 
chosen,  the  others  are  cut  down  to  the  ground  every  two,  twelve 
or  eighteen  years. 

Willow,  Salix. — The  willow  is  very  useful  for  planting  woods 
in  damp  or  low-lying  places  in  the  3rd,  4th,  5th,  6th,  7th,  8th  and 
9th  regions.  It  is  grown  from  grafting  twigs,  a  metre  apart, 
anywhere.  The  weeping  willow,  S.  babylonica,  gives  fuel  which 
sells  well.  The  osier  willow,  5.  purpurea,  S.  rubra,  S.  vitellina, 
S.  viminalis  and  S.  amygdalina,  furnish  fine  and  common  osiers, 
which  are  so  much  used  in  basket-making  of  every  kind,  and  for 
light  wicker  furniture  for  the  garden  and  the  beach.  It  is  one 
of  the  chief  products  of  the  Parana  Islands  and  others. 

Elm  Tree,  Ulmus. — The  elms  we  possess  belong  to  the  species 
U.  campestris,  L.,  and  U.  mo?itana,  Burch,  both  from  Europe. 
They  attain  a  height  of  40  metres  by  i  metre  in  diameter,  and 
grow  well  on  cool  gravelly  soil.  The  elm  in  general  is  more 
suited  to  the  hills  or  declivities  than  to  the  plains.    It  is  very 


FORESTRY  293 

hardy  and  long-lived.  Its  timber  is  excellent  for  coach-building, 
and  some  parts  of  it  for  cabinet-making.  It  is  a  good  species 
for  stock,  in  suitable  places,  in  the  3rd,  5th,  6th  and  7th  and  some 
parts  of  the  9th  region.  It  is  sown  as  soon  as  the  seeds  ripen  on 
well-tilled  soil,  either  in  furrows  or  plots. 


Exotic  Forest  Trees  which  it  would  be  well  to 
Introduce 

Fir  Tree. — The  most  interesting  species  are  : — 

A.  amahilis  and  A.  halsamea,  from  North  America,  grows 
from  30  to  40  metres  high  by  i  to  1-50  metres  in  diameter. 
Suitable  for  the  3rd,  5th  and  6th  regions. 

A.  bifida,  A.  hrachyphylla,  from  Japan,  attain  a  height  of 
40  or  50  metres,  4th,  5th  and  7th  regions. 

A.  bracteata,  Hook  and  Am. — From  the  mountains  of  Santa 
Lucia.    50  metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter. 

A.  concolor,  Lindl. —  From  the  Rocky  Mountains,  where  they 
grow  to  30  or  40  metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter.  These 
two  species  should  be  tried  in  the  3rd,  4th,  5th  and  6th  regions. 

A.  grandis,  Lindl. — From  the  northern  states  of  the  Union. 
Attains  a  height  of  90  metres  by  i  or  2  metres  in  diameter, 
3rd,  4th  and  6th. 

A.  magnifice,  Murr.,  and  A.  mohilis,  Lindl. — From  California 
and  Oregon,  where  it  grows  to  a  height  of  70  to  80  metres  by 
2  or  3  metres  in  diameter  ;  2nd  and  3rd  regions,  and  the  hills  in 
the  4th  and  5th. 

A.  pectinata,  D.  C. — From  Europe.  40  metres  in  height  by 
I  metre  and  sometimes  more  in  diameter  ;  3rd,  5tli,  6th  and  9th 
regions. 

A.  religiosa,  Lindl. — From  Mexico.  Attains  40  to  50  metres 
in  height  by  i  or  2  metres  in  diameter  ;  2nd  and  3rd  regions. 

All  fir  trees  require  hilly  ground  already  stocked  with  trees. 
It  is  useless  to  plant  them  on  the  open  plain.  Other  conifers, 
known  also  as  firs,  belong  to  the  genera  Picea  and  Tsuga. 

Maple  Tree. — The  x-icer  campestre  and  A.  platanoides. — From 
Europe,  appear  to  be  suited  for  our  3rd,  4th,  5th,  6th  and  7th 
regions,  the  latter  as  a  stock  species.    Thirty  feet  high. 

The  A.  eriocarpum,  Michx.,  and  A.  nibriim,  Miclix.,  are  two 


294         ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

handsome  species  from  North  America,  where  they  grow  to  a 
height  of  20  to  35  metres  by  i  metre  in  diameter. 

To  be  essayed  in  the  same  regions  as  the  preceding  trees. 
They  require  deep  soil  and  are  cultivated  hke  the  sycamore 
maple. 

Alders.  The  Alnus  cordifoUa,  Ten. — From  Europe,  and 
A.  orientalis,  Dene.,  from  Asia.  Would  grow  well  in  the  7th 
region  and  on  the  shores  of  the  5th,  6th  and  9th. 

Araucarias.  The  Araiicaria  Bidwilli,  Hook,  and  A.  Cunning- 
hami,  Ait.,  both  from  Eastern  Australia.  Grow  to  a  height  of 
50  to  60  metres  and  give  excellent  timber ;  2nd,  3rd  and  4th 
regions. 

A .  excelsa,  R.  Br. — From  Norfolk  Island.  Attains  a  height  of 
70  metres  by  i  metre  and  over  in  diameter ;  2nd,  3rd  and  4th 
regions. 

A.  Cookii,  E.  Br.,  and  A.  midleri,  R.  Br. — From  New  Cale- 
donia ;  40  metres  in  height ;   ist,  2nd  and  4th  regions. 

All  grow  on  deep,  humid  soil,  rich  in  vegetable  mould,  like 
certain  parts  of  the  Chaco  and  of  the  ist  and  2nd  regions. 

Birches. — Valuable  trees  for  the  3rd,  4th,  5th,  6th,  7th  and 
9th  regions.  Do  not  exceed  30  metres  in  height  on  the  best  soil, 
but  very  hardy  and  reach  a  metre  in  diameter.  The  best  species 
are  Betula  alba,  B.  nigra,  B.  lenta  and  B.  pubescens. 

American  Walnut  Trees. — All  give  excellent  timber,  strong 
and  hardier  than  the  European  kinds.  Could  be  planted  and 
sown  in  regions  3,  4,  5,  6  and  7.  The  best  species  for  woods 
are  Carya  alba.  Nut.,  and  C.  amara,  from  Canada.  C.  olivcBformis 
and  C.  porcina  from  the  central  states  of  North  America.  C. 
tomeniosa,  Nutt.,  is  popularly  known  in  North  America  as 
Hickory. 

Tall  trees,  generally  very  leafy,  and  suitable  for  stock  in  mixed 
woods  and  for  special  wood  planting,  together  with  European 
and  Asiatic  species,  cultivated  like  the  common  walnut,  /.  regia. 

Cedars. — All  cedars  give  very  fine  wood  known  as  cedar- 
wood,  whence  the  confusion  with  real  cedar  belonging  to  the 
conifera  family. 

The  Red  Cedar  of  Australia,  Cedrela  australis,  Muell.,  grows 
to  60  metres  in  height.    May  be  planted  in  the  ist  and  2nd  regions 
together  with  the  one  we  have,  C.  hrasiliensis.     C.  sineusis,  . 
A.  Juss,  seems  more  suitable  for  the  3rd  and  5th  regions. 


FORESTRY  295 

Cham^cyparis. — This  resinous  tree  gives  excellent  timber  in 
the  United  States,  where  it  grows  to  a  height  of  25  to  30  metres 
by  o-6o  metre  in  diameter.     The  species  C.  Lawsoniana  and 

C.  NiitkcBnsis,  from  North  America,  as  well  as  C.  obiusa,  Endl., 
from  Japan,  appear  to  te  suitable  for  dense  woods  in  regions 
4,  5  and  6. 

Dacrydium. — Indigenous  to  Tasmania  and  New  Zealand. 
The  forest  species  furnish  good  carpentry  timber.  From  some 
descriptions  of  Chilian  conifers  it  would  seem  that  some  of  these 
are  very  like  Dacrj^dium. 

The  most  interesting  species  are  D.   cupressinum,  Soland, 

D.  Franklinii  and  D.  Klrkii,  F.  v.  M. 

These  trees  grow  to  a  height  of  40  to  60  metres  and  require 
very  generous  soil,  rather  damp  and  warm,  like  that  of  the  ist 
and  2nd  regions  in  our  country.  To  be  cultivated  as  the  Aran- 
caria  hrasiliensis  or  Misiones  pine. 

DiosPYROS. — ^The  D.  lotus,  from  Italy,  and  D.  Virginiana 
furnish  valuable  timber  know  as  ebony.  They  do  not  exceed 
20  to  25  metres  in  height.  A  trial  might  be  made  in  the  2nd, 
3rd,  4th,  5th  and  7th  regions. 

Drimys,  D.  Winter,  Forst. — A  Chihan  tree  15  to  20  metres  in 
height,  gives  winter  bark,  used  in  medicine.  To  be  tried  for 
mixed  woods  in  the  3rd,  4th  and  5th  regions. 

Beech,  Fagus  sylvatica,  L. — A  European  tree  30  metres  in 
height  by  half  a  metre  in  diameter ;  gives  excellent  wood  for 
boxes  and  wooden  partitions  or  anj^thing  not  exposed  to  the 
weather.  A  first-cless  species  for  the  3rd,  5th,  6th  and  9th 
regions  as  a  stock  tree  in  tall  woods. 

Ash  Tree. — The  Fraxinus  americana,  L.,  F.  qiiadrangulatis, 
Michx.,  F.  samhiicifolia,  Lam. — From  North  America,  arc  trees 
of  30  to  35  metres  in  height  by  o-6o  to  i  metre  in  diameter. 
The  timber  is  highly  prized  for  coach-building  and  other  special 
work.  It  appears  suitable  for  mixed  woods  in  5th,  6th  and  7th 
regions,  where  it  may  be  grown  like  the  common  ash  tree. 

Black  Walnut  Tree,  Juglans  nigra,  L. — From  North 
America,  where  it  attains  40  metres  in  height  by  i  metre  in 
diameter.  Though  its  wood  is  not  so  valuable  as  common 
walnut,  it  is  very  pretty  and  fine-grained.  It  might  be  planted 
and  grown  in  the  same  regions  as  the  other  kinds  of  walnut. 

Juniper  Tree,  Junipcrus  virginiana,  L. — From  25  to  30 
metres  high  by  i  metre  in  diameter,  growing  in  North  American 


296    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

forests.  The  wood  is  very  nice,  and  used  by  cabinet-makers, 
etc.  This  conifer  appears  suitable  for  dense  woods  in  the  3rd, 
5th  and  6th  regions,  with  Lambertiana  and  other  cypresses,  and 
is  grown  in  the  same  way. 

Larch  Tree. — The  European  Larix  europea,  L.,  and  the 
American  L.  microcarpa  are  hardy  species  of  25  to  40  metres  in 
height  by  i  metre  in  diameter,  with  deciduous  leaves,  which 
makes  its  transport  easy ;  5th,  6th  and  8th  regions ;  in  tall 
woods  with  other  conifers.    Grown  like  the  Spruce. 

Spruces. — Great  conifers  of  the  cold  regions  of  North  America. 
The  most  suitable  species  for  woods,  besides  the  P.  excelsa, 
Linck.,  which  we  already  grow,  are  the  P.  alba,  Linck.,  from 
Canada,  P.  Engelmanii,  Car.,  from  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
P.  morinda,  Linck.,  from  the  Himalayas,  and  P.  nigra,  Linck., 
from  Northern  America.  The  latter  species  is  suitable  for  the 
6th  and  9th  regions  ;  the  others  for  the  5th  and  6th,  grown 
as  firs. 

Libocedrus  Decurrens,  Torr. — From  Cahfornia,  where  it 
grows  to  40  metres  in  height,  over  a  metre  in  diameter,  is  very 
strong  and  gives  excellent  timber.  Appears  suitable  for  afforesta- 
tion together  with  the  Chilian  variety  in  the  3rd,  4th,  5th  and 
7th  regions. 

To  be  sown  and  cultivated  like  the  Lambertiana  cypress. 

Tulip  Tree,  or  Whitewood,  Liriodendrum  tulipifera,  L. — 
From  North  America,  where  it  attains  a  height  of  60  metres  by 
3  and  4  metres  in  diameter.  Gives  good  wood  and  appears 
suitable  for  growing  in  tall  woods  on  deep  and  humid  soil  in 
regions  4,  5,  6  and  7. 

To  be  sown  thickly  in  furrows  or  in  beds  for  transplanting 
when  a  year  old. 

Pine  Trees. — We  already  have  different  kinds  of  pine  trees 
which  flourish  in  woods.  It  would  be  well  to  introduce  the  better 
species,  because  we  lack  such  as  Pinus  ausiralis,  Michx.,  from 
Carolina  and  Florida,  where  it  grows  to  35  to  40  metres  in  height. 
This  is  the  species  which  gives  the  timber  known  as  pitchpine. 

P.  Benthamiana,  Hartw. — From  California.  70  metres  in 
height  by  2  metres  in  diameter.    Good  timber. 

P.  excelsa,  Wall. — From  the  Himalayas.    40  metres  in  height. 

P.  Jeffreyana,  V.  H.;  P.  Lambertiana,  Doug.;  P.  Sabiniana, 
Doug.;  and  P.  Torreyana,  all  from  California. 


FORESTRY  297 

P.  Strobus,  L. — From  North  America.  A  hardy  tree  40  metres 
in  height  by  i  metre  in  diameter. 

The  Californian  species  might  be  tried  in  the  4th,  5th,  6th  and 
8th  regions.  The  Himalayan  species  on  the  mountain  ranges 
of  the  2nd,  3rd,  4th  and  5th,  and  the  last-named  species  in  the 
5th,  6th  and  8th.  That  from  the  Carohnas  might  be  grown 
together  with  P.  insignis. 

To  be  grown  in  woods  of  the  same  kind  in  the  same  regions 
and  in  the  same  way  as  those  we  have. 

Planera  Crenata,  Desf. — A  tree  from  the  Caucasians ; 
excellent  timber  and  very  hardy. 

Grown  like  the  elm  and  in  the  same  regions. 

Caucasian  Walnut  Tree,  Pterocarya  caucasica  and  P. 
Spachiand.— Trees  20  metres  in  height,  magnificent  timber  and 
suitable  for  intermingling  with  other  walnut  trees,  especially 
Csrya  species. 

Sequoia. — From  California,  where  it  grows  to  80  or  100  metres 
in  height  by  5  or  6  metres  in  diameter.  The  species  5.  gigantea 
is  that  which  attains  the  greatest  size  ;  the  5.  sempervirens  is 
more  modest  and  less  exacting  about  the  nature  of  the  soil  and 
its  situation.  The  former  requires  porous,  deep  and  rather 
clayey  soil,  situated  on  hills  or  in  ravines.  To  be  tried  in  the 
3rd  and  6th  regions  and  on  the  mountains  in  the  4th  and  5th. 
Grown  as  the  pine. 

Lime  Tree. — The  different  European  and  North  American 
species,  Tilia  argentea,  Desf.,  T.  nigra,  Burk,  and  T.  silvestris 
from  Europe,  might  be  planted  in  the  5th,  6th  and  7th  regions 
in  heavy,  porous,  clay  soil. 

Tsuga  doglasi  (Fir).— From  Colorado  State,  North  America. 
Attains  a  height  of  50  metres  and  furnishes  excellent  timber. 
Suitable  for  planting  woods  together  with  spruces  and  firs,  and 
grown  in  the  same  way. 

American  Elm  Tree,  Ulmiis  americanus,  L. — This  is  a  very 
hardy  species  at  least  30  metres  high.  Its  timber,  though  not 
so  very  good,  is  yet  used  in  carriage-building  and  the  like. 
Grown  like  other  elm  species  and  in  the  same  regions. 

Lest  it  should  be  thought  that  a  disproportionate  amount 
of  space  has  been  allotted  here  to  this  matter  of  forestry  it 
must  be  pointed  out  that  timber  of  all  kinds  constitutes  one 
19* 


298    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

of  the  greatest  of  the  still  latent  treasures  of  the  River  Plate. 
A  treasure  which  could  be  easily  realized  but  which  has 
hitherto  been  extraordinarily  neglected  not  only  in  practice 
but  even  by  most  writers  on  the  countries  in  question. 

Argentina  will  one  day  export  timber  and  ornamental 
woods  instead  of  importing  them  as  she  has  done  hitherto  ; 
and  perhaps  the  present  difficulties  of  maritime  transport 
will  help  to  turn  the  eyes  of  both  Repubhcs  to  the  wealth  of 
building  and  other  timber  and  fine  woods  they  have  at  hand. 

A  visit  to  the  coach-making  works  of  those  of  the  River 
Plate  Railway  Companies  which  manufacture  their  own 
luxurious  saloon  and  sleeping  cars,  would  alone  suffice  to 
astonish  many  people  by  the  beauty  and  value  of  the  native 
woods  there  used,  both  in  the  cabinet-maker's  art  and  in  the 
most  solid  portions  of  construction  destined  to  resist  excep- 
tional strain. 

Seilor  Mauduit  has  already  been  quoted  on  the  subject  of 
the  need  of  shade  for  cattle.  A  need  which  estancieros  now 
pretty  fully  appreciate. 


A 


CHAPTER  XIV 

LITERATURE   AND  ART 

S  in  most  young  countries,  the  Muses  have  in  Argen- 
tina and  Uruguay  had  to  be  content  chiefly  with 
the  imported  offerings  of  foreign  writers,  artists 
and  composers  ;  while  native  science  has  principally  been 
confined  to  medicine  and  surgery  and  various  branches  of 
rural  productiveness.  Still  the  River  Plate  Territories  have 
always  had  their  historians  and  poets,  and  recent  generations 
have  produced  some  painters,  sculptors  and  composers. 

The  Histories  of  Mitre  and  Araujo  are  admirable  literary 
monuments  to  the  glory  of  the  River  Plate  Territories  and 
the  memory  of  their  authors.  The  poetry  of  the  lately 
deceased  Guido  y  Spano  and  of  the  still  living  Zorrilla  de 
San  Martin  occupies  a  deservedly  high  place  in  modern 
literature  ;  while  the  names  of  Juan  Cruz  Varela,  Jose 
Marmol  and  Jose  Hernandez  (the  author  of  the  Lyrics  of 
Gaucho  life  published  under  the  title  of  "Martin  Fierro  ") 
will  ever  remain  household  words  on  the  River  Plate. 

Godofredo  Daireaux  and  Leopoldo  Lugones  are  typical 
and  delightful  writers  whose  sketches  are  faithful  vignettes 
of  the  manners  and  customs,  landscapes  and  senti- 
ment of  a  century  and  half  a  century  ago,  of  times 
of  heroic  battles  and  earl}^  peaceful  progress.  For  the 
rest,  one  must,  with  the  Muses,  wait  with  such  patience 
as  one  may  for  the  appearance  of  National  types  of 
literature  and  art ;  types  probably  only  to  be  formed  when 
the  National  types  of  men  and  women  have  reached  their 
fully  distinct  development  out  of  existing  cosmopolitan  chaos. 

299 


300    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

At  present  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  Art  and  Literature  ^  are 
chiefly  imitative  ;  music,  painting  and  novels  being  mostly 
exaggerations  of,  often  not  the  best,  ephemeral  European 
taste  and  fashions,  while  architecture  usually  alternates 
fidelity  to  stucco  with  trivially  fantastic  French  "  Villa  " 
and  "  Chateau  "  styles. 

Novelists  seek  to  make  one's  flesh  creep  ;  Painters  to 
outvie  either  incomprehensibility  or  banaHty  ;  Architects 
achieve  futility  and  Musicians  are  reminiscent  of  everything 
except  the  sad  charm  of  melody  which  is  their  natural  in- 
heritance, through  the  Pay  adores,  from  Moorish  Spain. 
The  old  intervals  and  harmonies  are  carefully  eschewed  in 
favour  of  anything,  no  matter  what,  which  may  seem  to 
have  a  piquant  flavour  of  "  art  nouveau." 

Nevertheless,  nature  sometimes  will  out  and  the  old-time 
moods  now  and  again  penetrate  the  covering  of  pseudo- 
Viennese  melody  and  modern  Italian  harmonies  under  which 
the  composer  has  sought  to  hide  his  natural  gifts  and 
atavistic  inspiration. 

It  is  only  in  the  theatre  that  the  true  native  genius  is 
allowed  full  play.  Some  of  the  real  Argentine  dramas  and 
comedies  are  refreshingly  delightful  in  their  truth  of  charac- 
terization, sentiment  and  humour.  All  is  of  the  soil,  true  to 
type  and  racy.  But  such  things  are  only  played  at  minor 
houses  and  in  rural  districts.  Fashion  knows  them  not,  nor 
desires  to  know  them,  while  Italian  and  French  operatic 
and  dramatic  companies  hold  the  boards  of  the  leading 
theatres  at  prices  which  make  it  quite  obligatory  for  all  the 
best  people  to  be  seen  frequently  in  their  boxes  or  stalls. 
Still  the  minor  theatre  is  the  casket  of  the  one  true  jewel  in 
Argentine  Art  which  shines  with  its  inherent  native  brilliance. 

Unless,  perhaps,  florid  oratory  may  be  termed  an  Art. 
If  so,  it  is  one  which  has  a  wide  vogue  throughout  South 
America.     Few  events  are  there  allowed  to  pass  without 

^  Uruguayan  literature  is  tlie  less  open  to  adverse  criticism  in  this 
regard. 


LITERATURE  AND  ART  301 

lengthy  and  vigorous  "  Discursos  "  ;  the  real  or  simulated 
passion  of  which  rings  strangely  false  in  Anglo-Saxon  ears. 
Much  virtue,  however,  lies  in  accepted  convention,  and  the 
South  American  sees  nothing  comic  or  discordant  in  a  frock- 
coated  orator  doing  his  best  to  turn  over  a  sheaf  of  manu- 
script with  one  hand  whilst  he  indulges  in  what  to  us  is 
painfully  exaggerated  gesticulation  with  the  rest  of  his 
body.  On  the  contrary,  the  bravas  of  the  audience  which 
punctuate  the  barn-storming  enunciation  of  the  most  high- 
flown  sentiments  are  evidently  and  whole-heartedly  sincere 
expressions  of  admiration  for,  at  least,  the  speaker's  mastery 
of  the  declamatory  art,  Discursos  are,  in  South  America,  the 
inevitable  accompaniment  of  every  event  of  any  mark,  from 
a  funeral  to  the  announcement  of  a  dividend. 

It  is  part  of  the  Hero  Worship  which  has  so  large  a  place 
in  the  Latin  nature.  A  worship  none  the  less  fervent  because 
the  enjoyment  of  it  by  its  living  object  is  frequently  as  brief 
as  it  must  be  sweet.  Once  dead,  of  course,  a  hero  is  one  for 
ever  if  he  have  attained  his  niche  at  some  prominent  period 
of  his  country's  history.  Great  Presidents  live  perennially  in 
the  knowledge  of  every  school  child,  and  one  bad  one  is  still 
honoured  by  reference  to  his  name  and  attributes  in  the 
comic  journals  whenever  an  unflattering  comparison  to  a 
living  politician  is  sought.  Rozas  and  Artigas  have  their 
true  meed  of  mingled  praise  and  blame. 

But  all  this  digresses  from  the  heading  of  this  chapter  ; 
through,  perhaps,  an  unconscious  effort  on  the  author's  part 
to  eke  out  an  as  yet  somewhat  barren  subject. 

The  truth  is  that  no  country  nor  individual  has  ever 
produced  much  art  of  any  account  during  its  or  his  infancy. 
And  Argentina  and  Uruguay  are  still  in  the  barely  adolescent 
stage  of  their  economic  and  political  development.  The 
many  sympathetic,  though  often  contrasted,  characteristics 
of  the  true  Argentine  and  Uruguayan  hold  out,  however, 
good  hope  for  artistic  achievement  in  the  future.  The  facts 
that  Argentina  has  already  one  truly  native  sculptress  of 


302    ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 

more  than  mediocre  talent  in  Lola  Mora,  and  one  master  of 
the  art  of  word-painting  in  illustration  of  the  old-world 
charm  of  some  of  the  people  and  scenery  of  various  distant 
parts  of  the  Republic  in  Leopoldo  Lugunes  must  not  be  lost 
sight  of.  Nor  must  the  further  one  that  the  poetic  spirit  of 
the  past  which  still  broods  over  the  wide  Pampa  has  been 
caught  and  crystallized  by  [Godefredo  Daireaux  in  his 
Tipos  y  Paisages  Argentinos  and  other  delicate  allegories 
and  sketches.  The  River  Plate  awaits  a  native  W.  C.  Cable 
to  write  a  rosary  of  tales  of  the  Old  Colonial  Days  of  the 
Puerto  de  Santa  Maria  de  los  Buenos  Aires,  of  Vice-Regal 
balls,  of  high-combed,  mantilla-coifed  and  beflounced  belles 
in  seringa  and  orange  blossom  scented  gardens  ;  of  sighs 
and  vows  breathed  between  window  bars  ;  of  times  the 
politely  veneered  roughness  of  which  has  been  softened  for 
us  by  the  haze  of  remoteness  ;  a  haze  which  soon  will  have 
produced  complete  obliteration  if  some  living,  understanding 
brain  does  not  quickly  record  their  outlines  and  fill  these  in 
with  appropriate  tints. 

Someone  will,  must,  do  this.    But  no  stranger.    Only  a 
native  genius,  daintily  contemplative,  can,  as  a  labour  of        m 
love,  bring  back  to  life  the  dolce  far  niente  days  of  South 
America  before  its  Colonists  awakened  to  the  shrill  call  of 
Liberty  and  Independence. 


INDEX 


Agricultural  instructors,  225,  260 
Agricultural  Show,  8g 
Agriculture,     Argentine,     Develop- 
ment of,  241 
Agriculture,   Cultivable  area,   217, 

237 

Agriculture  (Exports),  215,  242,  245 

Alcorta,  Dr.  Figueroa,  2,  3,  64,  65, 
66,  67,  208 

Alfalfa  and  wheat,  Alternation  of, 
224,  225,  254,  255 

Alfalfares,  158 

Alta  Gracia,  149 

Americanisms,  44 

Anarchists,  recalcitrant,  198 

Anchorena  (family),  187 

Andalgala,  164 

Andes  tunnel,  124 

Arab-Semitic  blood,  41 

Araijjo,  299 

Argentines  and  Uruguayans  con- 
trasted, 42,  45,  59,  60 

Aristocracy,  Argentine,  4 

Armageddon,  227 

Arrowroot,  236 

Artigas  (general),  30,  31,  38,  71, 152, 
301 

Artigas  (Department),  63 

Asistencia  Publica,  14,  54 

August,  191 4,  94,  95 

Avellaneda,  141 

Avenida  de  Mayo,  14 

Azul,  142 

Bahia  Blanca,  140 

Balfour,  Jabez,  169,  170 

Ballot,  35 

Banda  Oriental,  30,  31,  60 

Bank  Holiday,  19,  94,  95 

Banks,  18,  112,  137 

Banks  of  Issue,  103 

Baring,  31 

BatUe  y  Ordofiez,  Senor,  33,  70 

"Bear"  (a  famous),  118,  119 

Belgians,  27 

Belgrano  (General),  168 

Belle  Ville,  149 

Bella  Vista,  155 

Bermejo  (River),  168,  205,  206 


Boleadora,  15,  170 

Bolza  (Buenos  Aires),  117,  118 

Bolza  de  Cereales  (Buenos  Aires)  ,116 

Bomberos,  14 

Borax,  168 

Brazil,  35 

Bread  and  meat,  222 

Bridges,  The  late  Mr.,  199 

Britain,  259 

British  railway  management,  53 

British  trade  methods,  106,  107 

Buenos    Aires    (Province    of),    63, 

139-44 

Buenos  Aires  (Province),  Chief  pro- 
ducts of,  142 

Buenos  Aires  (City),  82,  83,  90,  92 

Cafayate,  174 

Caja  de  Conversion,  19,  98,  99 

"  Camp,"  II,  60 

Campo,  Dr.  L.  del,  67 

Campo  Santo,  174 

Canelones  (Department),  63,  214 

Capital,  II 

Capital,  Federal,  G3 

Carbo,  Dr.,  18 

Carmen  de  Patagones,  190,  193 

Carnot,  74 

Carre,  Ferdinand,  251 

Castilian  language,  43,  44 

Catamarca  (Province  of),  63,  163, 
164.  165 

Catamarca  (Province),  Cliief  pro- 
ducts of,  163 

Catamarca,  City  of,  164 

Cedulas,  Argentine  National,  114, 
115,  119,  120 

Cedulas,  Provincial,  119 

Census  (Commercial  and  industrial 
of  city  of  Buenos  Aires),  137 

Centenary,  Argentine,  67 

Cereal  cultivation,  Cliief  areas  of, 
223,  224 

Cereals  (export),  246 

Cerro  Largo  (Department),  63 

Cervantes,  43 

Chaco,  The  (Territory),  63,  214 

Chacrero,  27 

Chaves,  Nunflo  de,  250 


303 


304 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


Chicory,  236 

Children,  57 

Chile,  35 

Chilled  meat,  251 

Chiripa,  14 

Chivilcoy,  142 

Choele  Choel,  190 

Chubut    (Territory),   63,   193,   194, 

195.  196 
Chubut  (Territory),  Chief  products 

of,  196 
Cinnamon,  236 
Club  Uruguayo,  79 
Coffee,  173,  218,  236 
Colastine,  145 
Cold  storage,  254,  265 
Coldstoragecompanies,222,269, 272 
Colon  Theatre,  85 
Colonia  (Department),  63,  214 
Colonist-s,  7,  10,  27,  228,  265 
Colonist,  The  case  for,  229 
Colonization,  10,  27,  97 
Commissary,  Police,  68,  73 
Common  sense,  5,  7,  50,  59 
Comodoro  Rivadavia,  193,  194 
Comparative  movement,  in   Ports, 

125 

Concessions,  51,  52 

Conc6rdia,  152,  153 

Congress-es,  62 

Conquistadores,  43,  46 

Constitution-s,  62,  65,  72,  75,  174 

Conventillo,  91 

Conversion  Fund,  99 

Conversion  Law,  76,  98,  99,  100, 
loi,  102,  103 

Copper,  164,  166,  179,  184,  192,  214 

Cordoba,  Province  of,  63,  145 

Cordoba  (Province),  Chief  products 
of,  146 

Cordoba,  City  of,  146,  147,  148 

Com  Exchange  (Buenos  Aires),  116 

Corrientes,  Province  of,  63,  153 

Corrientes  (Province),  Chief  pro- 
ducts of,  153,  155 

Corrientes,  City  of,  154,  155 

Cost  of  living,  Comparative,  84,  85 

Cotton,  2,  8,  16,  181,  219 

Coya  Indians,  172,  173 

Credit,  Commercial,  iii 

Credit,  Customary  trade,  112 

Credit,  National,  76 

Credito  Argentino,  120 

Crisis  of  1890,  31 

Cuenca  Vidal,  189 

Curanderas,  159 

Curanderos,  159 

Curuzii  Cuatia,  155 


Daireaux,  Godofredo,  i,  299,  302 
Defensa  Agricola,  239,  240 
Departments,  63 
Deputies,  Chamber  of,  63,  67 
Development  of  River  Plate  terri- 
tories, I 
Dique  San  Roque,  149 
Doctrinairism,  27,  69,  70 
Doinnel,  Hipolito,  268 
Dollar,  Uruguayan,  43 
Drabble,  Mr.  Alfred,  269 
Drama,  Native,  86,  300 
Drought,  225,  259 
Dulce,  River,  158,  163 
Durazno  (Department),  63,  212 

Earthquakes,  176 
Elections,  Corrupt,  36,  68 
Emigrants,  12 
Empedrado,  155 

Entre  Rios,  Province  of,  63,  150 
Entre   Rios   (Province),  Chief  pro- 
ducts of,  150,  151 
Espinoza,  Juan  de  Galazary,  250 
Estancia-s,  52,  53 
Estanciero— s,  48,  76 
Exports,  128,  130,  135,  136 
Exports,  Cereal,  135,  242,  245 
Exports,  Live  stock  and  products 
of,  135,  266,  267 

Farming,  52 

Fashion,  92 

Ferry  boats.  Train  carrying,  151 

Fisheries,  199 

Flores  (Department),  63 

Florida  (Department),  163,  214 

Formosa   (territory),   63,   205,  206, 

207,  208,  209,  210 
Fortune-tellers,  55 
Frozen  meat,  251 
Frozen  and  chilled  meat  (exports), 

275 
Futures,  Grain,  116 

Galician  language,  44 

Gallegos  Port,  197 

Garay,  Juan  de,  249 

"  Gatos,"  117 

Gaucho-s,2, 13,47,48, 158, 159, 170, 

171.  172,  173 
German  trade  methods,  104 
Gibson,  Mr.  Herbert,  171,  229,  250, 

262,  264 
Goes,  Brothers,  16,  250 
Gold,  157,  179,  187,  200,  214 
Gold  speculation,  103 
Golondrinas,  109 


INDEX 


305 


Government,  4,  5,  62,  64,  74,  75, 

76.  77 
Government,  Provincial,  64,  65,  77 
Government,  Mmiicipal,  77 
Granite,  203 
Grapes,  177,  i8o,  181 
Groussac,  Mr.  Paul,  43 
Guanaco,  173 
Guaranl,  43 
Guayra  Falls,  202 
Guido  y  Spano,  299 

Halbach,  Mr.,  261 

Harvesters,  8 

Harvests,  26 

Harvests,  Recent,  245,  246 

Havre,  251 

Hernandez,  Jose,  299 

High  Court,  Argentine  Federal,  2, 

"  History  of  Belgrano,"  249 
Hops,  236 
Horse  breeding,  253 
Hospitals,  53 
Hot  springs,  174,  188 
Hotels,  90 

Huerta,  President,  38 
Humahuaca,  168 
Hurlingham,  89 
Hustling,  105 

Hypothecary  Bank,  Argentine  Na- 
tional, 114,  115 

Ibera,  Lake,  156 

Ibicuy,  151 

Iguazu  Falls,  151,  182,  201,  202 

Ilex  Paraguayensis,  220 

Immigrants,  228 

Immigration,  42,  126 

Immigration  (Comparative returns), 

126 
"  Imperio  in  Imperium,"  Railway, 

2l6 

Imports,  129,  130,  131,  132 
Independence,  Declaration  of,  29, 

47,  162,  168 
Indian— s,  15,  41,  46 
Intendente  Municipal,  62,  64 
Intensive  farming,  6,  255 
Intermarriage,  41 
Interpreter,  108 
Interventor,  66 
Iron,  214 
Irrigation,  137,  149,  150,  15S,  160, 

162,  163,  166,  167,  175,  177,  180, 

186,  188,  i8g,  190,  227 
Italianate  population,  42 
Ituzaing6,  155 


Jesuits,  160,  1S5,  201,  202,  203,  204, 

205,  221 
Jeunesse  doree,  58 
Jockey  Club,  Argentine,  5,  88 
Juarez  Celman,  31 
Jujuy,  Province  of,  63,  167,  168,  i6g 
Jujuy  (Province),  Chief  products  of, 

168 
Jujuy,  City  of,  168 

La  Frigoriftque,  268 

La  Paraguay,  268 

La  Plata,  City  of,  139,  140 

La  Rioja,  Province  of,  63,  165,  166, 
167 

La  Rioja  (Province),  Chief  products 
of,  165 

La  Rioja,  Province  of,  165,  167 

La  Rioja,  City  of,  166 

Labour,  7,  11 

Lago  Pellegrini,  189 

Land,  5,  7,  51 

Lands,  Fiscal,  7 

Language,  42,  43,  44 

Latent  landlords  (Latifundfos),  9 

Latifundios,  207 

Latzina,  Dr.  Francisco,  17,  236,  237 

Lavalle,  General,  168 

Laws,  72 

Leach  family,  167,  169 

Lead,  179,  214 

Lertora,  Mr.,  54 

Liebig  factories,  153 

Linseed  (export),  242 

Live  Stock,  Chief  areas  of,  255 

Live  Stock  Disease,  Comparative 
absence  of,  258 

Live  Stock  Disease,  Precautions 
against,  258,  259 

Live  Stock  Products  (exports),  266, 
267 

Live  Stock  on  Hoof,  Prohibited  im- 
portation into  Great  Britain,  258, 
259 

Live  Stock  (statistics),  256,  257,  262, 
263,  264,  265 

Loans,  National,  114,  115,  119,  120 

Loans,  Provincial,  65 

Locusts,  23S,  239,  240 

Los  Andes  (Territory),  63,  214 
"  Los  Remedios  "  Estancia,  261 
Lotteries,  National,  88 
Lugones,  Leopoldo,  299,  302 

Maize  (export),  242 
Maldonado  (Department),  63,  214 
"Manana,"  20,  49,  225 
Marble,  166,  179 
Mar  Chiquita,  149 


306 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


Marcos  Juarez  (town),  149 

Mar-del-Plata,  5,  88,  123,  141 

Marmol,  Jose,  299 

"  Martin  Fierro,"  299 

Martinez  de  Hoz,  Seiior,  253 

Mate,  56,  220,  221 

Mate  Yerba,  202,  203 

Mauduit,  Sciior  Fernando,  277,  278, 

298 
Mayflower,  The,  44,  194 
Meat,  Early  export  of,  268 
Meat  trade  (exports),  270,  271,  272, 

273 
Meat  trade,  Recent,  269,  272 
Mendoza,  Pedro  de,  249,  250 
Mendoza,  Province  of,  63,  174,  175, 

176,  177,  178 
Mendoza  (Province),  Chief  products 

of.  175 
Mendoza,  City  of,  176,  177 
Mercedes  (Corrientes),  155 
Metan,  174 

Metric  measurements,  106,  107 
Mihanovich  (boats),  201,  202 
Mihanovich,  Nicolas,  81 
Miller,  Mr.  John,  261 
Milling  industry,  116,  145,  213 
Minas  (Department),  63 
Minerals,   157,   163,   164,   166,   1S7, 

192,  214 
Misiones   (Territory),  63,  200,  201, 

202,  203,  204,  205 
Misiones  (Territory),  Chief  products 

of,  203,  204 
Mitre,  General,  31,  123,  249,  299 
Mitre,  The  late  Senor  Emilio,  122 
Mitre  Law,  The,  122,  123 
Monetary  system,  Argentine,   loi 
Monetary  system,  Uruguayan,   33, 

104 
Monetary  values.  Equivalent,  100 
Money  Markets,  93 
Monroe  Doctrine,  105 
Montevideo  (City),  32,  45,  53,  79,  80 
Montevideo  (Department),  63 
Moorish  civilization,  41,  58 
Mora,  Lola,  301 
Morals,  90,  91 
Moratorium,  20 

Mulhall.  The  late  Mr.  E.  T.,  191 
Mulhall,  The  late  Mr.  Michael,  191 

Nahuel  Huapi,  Lake,  187,  191,  194 
National  Territories,  62,  63 
Negro  blood,  40,  41,  46 
Negro  race,  15 

Neuquen  (Territory),  63,  185,  186, 
187,  188 


Neuquen  (Territory),  Chief  products 

of,  187 
Newton,  Mr.  Richard,  261 
Nueve  de  Julio,  142 

Old  Colonial  days,  29 
Oligarchies,   Provincial,   2,   64,   65, 

66,  67 
Olivera,  Senor,  261 
Once  cereal  market,  116 
Onyx,  "  Brazilian,"  157 
Oratory,  300 

Palermo,  5,  87,  88 

Palermo    Agricultural    Show,    253, 

263,  264 
Palermo  race-course,  5 
Pampa,  A  tale  of  the,  i,  44 
Pampa  Central  (Territory)  ,62,63,182 
Pampa  Central,  Chief  products  of, 

183,  184 
Paraguay,  35 

Paraguay,  River,  205,  206 
Parana,  City  of,  151,  152 
Parana  Congress,  268 
Parana,  River,  123,  143,  144,  145, 

150,  151,  154,  155 
Parana,  River,  Upper,  202 
Patriarchs,  i,  2,  48,  51 
Payadores,  13,  299 
Paysandu  (Department),  63,  212 
Peaches,  177,  180 
Penna,  Dr.,  54 
Peon,  12,  47,  48 
Pergamino,  142 
Petroleum,  193,  194 
Philology,  43 
Pig  farming,  253,  254 
Pilcolmayo,  River,  205,  206 
Pillado,  Senor  Ricardo,  17,  loi,  241 
Plaza,  Dr.  Victorino  de  la,  18,  34,  39 
Pocitos,  79 
Politics,     Argentine      (foreign     or 

commercial),  3 
Politics,  Argentine  internal,  3,  4,  75 
Ponchos,  14,  173 
Population,  8,  15,  96,  97,  254 
Population,  Problem  of,  226,  227, 

228 
Ports,  125 
Posadas,  201 

Poultry  farming,  253,  254 
Protective  economic  measures  (War) , 

94.  95 
Provinces,  62,  63 
Public  works,  137 
Puente  del  Inca,  177 
Puerto  Deseado,  197 


INDEX 


307 


Quack  doctors,  55,  159 
Quebracho,  2,   144,   154,   158,  206, 

277 
Quevedo,  268 
Quichiia,  43 
Quintana,  Dr.  Manuel,  66 

Railway  enterprise,  215,  216,  217 
Railway  "  Iniperium  in  Imperio," 

122 
Railways,  215,  216 
Railways,  Foreign,  6 
Railways,  Foreign  capital  invested 

in,  122 
Railways  (total lengths  of  lines),  122 
Railways  (gauges  in  use),  122 
Railways,  The  Buenos  Aires  West- 
ern, 122,  184 
Railways,   The  Central  Argentine, 

52,  122,  149 
Railways,  The  Buenos  Aires  Great 

Southern,  122,  124,  140,  184,  186, 

191 
Railways,  The  Buenos  Aires  Pacific, 

122,  124,  140,  177,  184,  igo,  193 
Railways,     The    Central   Cordoba, 

124 
Railway's,  The  Entre  Rios,  124 
Railways,  The  Province    of  Santa 

Fe,  123,  124 
Railways,  The  Province  of  Buenos 

Aires,  124 
Railways,    The    N.   E.   Argentine, 

201,  205 
Railways,  The  Central  Uruguay  of 

Montevideo,  122 
Railways,  Argentine  National,  124, 

163,  167 
Railways,  An  U.S.  Syndicate,  124 
Railways,  travelling  comforts,   123 
Ramirez,  79 
Rawson  (town),  194 
"  Reds,"  32,  60,  69,  76 
Rebenque,  170 
Recoleta,  89 
Regulations,  72 

Retail  traders,  NationaUties  of,  138 
Revenue,  Surplus,  136,  137 
"  Revolucion  de  Arriba,"  67 
Rice,  218,  219 

Rio  Colorado,  143,  183,  187,  189 
Rio  Cuarto  (town),  149 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  State  of,  35,  213 
Rio  Negro   (Argentina),    183,    187, 

189,  190 

Rio  Negro  (Uruguay),  213 

Rio  Negro  (Territory),  63,  188,  189, 

190,  191,  192,  193 


Rio   Negro    (Territory),  Chief  pro- 
ducts of,  191,  192 
Rio  Negro  (Department),  63 
River  Plate  Spanish  (language),  42, 

43.  44 
Rivera  (Department),  63 
Rocha  (Department),  63,  214 
Rosario  (de  la  Frontera),  174 
Rosario  (de  Santa  Fe),  145 
Rozas,  Juan  Manuel  de,  30,  31,  38, 

152,  261,  301 
Rural  banks,  28 
Rural  Society  (Argentine),  251,  262 

Saenz  Pefia,  Dr.,  34,  36,  64,  67,  68, 

76 
Saladillo,  River,  158 
Salta,  Province  of,  63,  169,  170,  172, 

173.  174 

Salta,  City  of,  174 

Salto  (Department),  63 

San  Antonio,  Bay,  190,  191 

San  Bias,  igi,  192 

San  Ignacio,  202,  203 

San  Jorge  (gulf),  193 

San  Jose  (Department),  63,  214 

San  Juan,  Province  of,  63,  17S,  179, 
180,  181,  182 

San  Juan  (Province),  Former  finan- 
ces of,  178,  179 

San  Juan,  City  of,  1S2 

San  Luis,  Province  of,  63,  156 

San  Luis  (Province),  Chief  products 
of,  157,  158 

San  Martin,  General,  156 

San  Martin,  Zorrilla  de,  299 

San  Matias  (gulf),  190 

San  Rafael,  175 

Sandhills,  Shifting,  248 

Santa  Cruz  (Territory),  63,  195,  196, 
197 

Santa  Cruz  (Territory),  Chief  pro- 
ducts of,  197 

Santa  Fe,  Province  of,  63,  144 

Santa  Fe  (Province),  Chief  products 
of,  144 

Santa  Fe,  City  of,  144,  145 

Santa  Marina,  Seiior,  81 

Santa  Rosa  de  Toay,  184 

Santiago  del  Estero,  Province  of, 
63.  158,  159,  160 

Santiago  del  Estero  (Province), 
Chief  products  of,  158 

Sarmicnto,  President,  31,  152 

Securities,  28 

Securities  (investment),  116 

Senate,  Senators,  63,  65,  67 

Servants,  56 


308 


ARGENTINA  AND  URUGUAY 


Settlers,  g,  185 

Sierra  de  la  Ventana,  143 

Silesian  Brothers,  199 

Silver,  164,  166,  179,  214 

Single- tax,  28 

Smuggling,  overland,  209 

Socialism,  28,  70 

Society,  Argentine,  4 

Soil,  The  nature  of,  246,  247,  248 

Spain,  29,  30 

Spanish  blood,  40,  46 

Spanish-speaking  commercial  trav- 

vellers,  107 
Speculative  shares,  113,  118 
Squadron  of  Security,  14 
Soler  Theatre,  79 
"Soriano"  (Department),  63,  212, 

214 
"  Standard,"  The  Buenos  Aires,  191 
Statistics,  Foreign  trade,  127,  128, 

129,  130,  131,  132,  133 
Statistics,  Uruguayan,  Deficiencies 

of,  132 
Stock  Exchange,  Buenos  Aires,  113, 

114 
Storekeeper,  8 

Sugar,  16,  160,  161,  162,  167,  218 
Sugar-beet,  236 
Sulphur,  179 
"  Sun  of  May,"  168 
"  Swallows  "  (Golondrinas),  9 
Sweet  Sorghum,  236 
Swiss  colony,  27 

Tandil,  82,  143,  144 

Tarquin  (bull),  261 

Tea,  236 

Tellier,  Charles,  251,  269 

Terrasson,  Eugenio,  251 

Theatre,  58 

"  The  Land  we  Live  on,"  229 

Tierra  del  Fuego,  63,  194,  195,  197, 

198,  199,  200 
Tigre  River,  87,  89,  143 
Timber,  16,  187,  202,  209,  277,  298 
Tin,  164,  166 

Tobacco,  16,  181,  218,  219,  220 
Tornquist,  Mr.  C.  A.,  ig,  21-26 
Tosca,  247,  24S 
Tramways,  Buenos  Aires,  84 
Tramways,  Montevideo,  71,  85 
Transandine  Railway,  175,  177 


Traps  for  the  unwary,  9 
Treinta  y  Tres  (Department),  63 
Tres  Arroyos,  142 
Tronador  (mountain),  187 
Tucuarembo  (Department),  63,  212 
Tucuman,  Province  of,  63,  160,  161, 

162,  163 
Tucuman  (Province), Chief  products 

of,  160 

United  States,  44,  105 

United  States,  trade  methods,  105, 

106 
Urquiza,  General,  151,  152 
Uruguay,  212,  213,  214 
Uruguay,  River,  123,  155,  156 
Ushuaia,  199 

Vanilla,  236 

Varela,  Juan  Cruz,  299 

Viceroys,  Viceregal,  29 

Victoria  Island,  187 

Vicuna,  173 

Viedma,  192 

Viera,  Dr.,  18 

Villa  Constitucion,  145 

Villanueva,  Sehor  Benito,  143 

Voting,  Obhgatory,  36 

Walle,  Paul,  159,  197 

War,  The.  18,  28 

Welsh  colony,  27,  194,  195 

Wheat  (cliief  areas  of  production), 

223,  224 
Wheat  (export),  135,  242,  246 
Wheat  and  lucerne.  Alternation  of, 

254,  255 
Wliite,  Mr.  261 
"  Whites,"  32,  60,  69,  76 
Windmills,     Water-drawing,      142, 

225,  260 
Wine,  157,  165,  174,  175,  177,  180 
Wit,  Native,  13 
Wolfram,  157 
Women,  55,  57 
Wool  exports,  136,  260,  267 

Yankee,  48,  106 

Zarate,  151,  254 
Zeballos,  Dr.,  263 
Zinc,  179 


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PLYMOUTH,    ENGLAND 


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